The Children’s Education Initiative Awards Mark Day School $1.1 Million Grant to Support Access to Education
MAY 30, 2024, SAN RAFAEL, CA - Mark Day School is excited to announce a multi-year grant from The Children’s Education Initiative (TCEI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in San Diego committed to funding increased access to a quality education for students for whom the cost of tuition would be a prohibitive barrier. TCEI has awarded Mark Day School a $1.1 million grant to fund multiple students through their entire arc, from kindergarten through 8th grade.
TCEI selected Mark Day School as a partner based on its challenging curriculum, outstanding student outcomes, and long-established commitment to increase diversity, inclusion, and access to a Mark Day education. Further, the TCEI Board called out the presence of the school’s ambitious goals around diversity and inclusion in Mark Day’s 2022 Strategic Plan.
Head of School Joe Harvey says, “Diversity and inclusion have been a priority at Mark Day from the school’s inception in 1980. Research and our experience reveal that diversity and inclusion lead to higher performance--greater critical thinking, perspective taking, adjacent idea generation, and more--and that they are prerequisites for excellence. The transformative grant from TCEI will help us continue work that we have been committed to for many years.”
One manifestation of Mark Day School’s commitment to socio-economic diversity is Indexed Tuition, where every family at the school pays somewhere along the tuition index. At Mark Day, 25% of families qualify to pay tuition below the top of the index based on demonstrated financial need. The TCEI funding will add to our ability to support socio-economic diversity among our students.
Indexed Tuition Coordinator Wendy Broderick adds, “Over our 44-year history, we have had many students who go on to be the first person in their family to attend college and have seen many ways that every student benefits from diversity of all kinds, including socio-economic. We are thrilled about the ability to enroll additional students who could otherwise not afford to attend Mark Day School.”
We are deeply grateful to TCEI for its generosity. This transformative grant will have a tremendous impact on our entire community at Mark Day and will support an enriching educational environment for all students.