Belinda Jiao
Elon Musk wants to create his own university in Austin, Texas, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.
But first up is a school for younger students.
Musk has donated about $100 million to a new charity that plans to launch a school that will cater to elementary school through high school-age children, according to tax filings viewed by Bloomberg. The program will be "focused on teaching in STEM subjects" and plans for an initial enrollment of about 50 students, according to the filing that was posted by the publication.
The charity, named The Foundation, "intends ultimately to expand its operations to create a university dedicated to education at the highest levels," according to the document. The university would apply for accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the document said.
The filing also says the school plans to be "tuition-free," but will provide need-based scholarships if it implements a tuition.
A spokesperson for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk has expressed interest in launching a school in the past and event started a small private school, called Ad Astra, for his kids and children of company employees in 2014. Musk said in 2015 that Ad Astra doesn't have any grades and focuses on "aptitudes and abilities" instead.
More recently, Musk has voiced interest in starting a Montessori-style school in Snailbrook — a company town the billionaire is working on building in Bastrop, Texas — according to a Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
The billionaire once joked about creating a Texas Institute for Technology, or "TITs" for short, and has made several comments on X regarding the state of education in the US.
"SpaceX and Tesla have noticed a meaningful degradation in the capability of US college graduates over the past several years," Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
