Schools

PG Schools to Receive $1 Million from National Harbor Owner

A $1 million donation from the owner of National Harbor to Prince George's County Public Schools will be used to attract, train and develop teachers to work in the county's schools.

The owner of National Harbor will announce today that it is donating $1 million to an effort to attract teachers in the Prince George’s County Public Schools.

The Peterson Family Foundation of Fairfax, VA, plans to announce Monday that it will give $1 million to Teach for America-D.C. Region to attract, train and develop teachers to work in the county’s schools, The Washington Post reports.

“I’m thankful for this generosity,” said Kevin Maxwell, chief executive of the Prince George’s schools. “We can’t do this work by ourselves. We need our community partnerships and business partnerships to get the work done.”

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Maxwell told the Post the donation will help the district, which often starts the school year without a full complement of permanent teachers, address its teacher shortage. He said he hoped that other community groups and business leaders would follow this gift to the school system.

Lauren Peterson, director of the Peterson Family Foundation, said the family has made donations to other community groups in Prince George’s since National Harbor was built.

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“We consider education to be the best investment that we can make . . . education is the great equalizer,” said Peterson, who also serves on the board of Teach for America-D.C. Region. “We want to use this platform to challenge other companies and business leaders to invest in education in Prince George’s.”

This year, there are 100 Teach for America “corps members” working in Prince George’s County schools.


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