New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Image by Getty Images

(JTA) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will donate $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University, which he attended, to provide more financial aid to low-and middle-income students.

It is reported to be the largest private donation to higher education, and will allow the university to eliminate loans from financial aid packages for incoming students beginning in the next school year and expand grants for those in financial need.

“No qualified high school student should ever be barred entrance to a college based on his or her family’s bank account. Yet it happens all the time,” Bloomberg wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times on Sunday announcing the gift.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“Denying students entry to a college based on their ability to pay undermines equal opportunity. It perpetuates intergenerational poverty. And it strikes at the heart of the American dream: the idea that every person, from every community, has the chance to rise based on merit,” he wrote.

The donation announced on Sunday is in addition to the some $1.5 billion that Bloomberg, 76, has donated to the school in past years to support research, teaching and financial aid.

Bloomberg noted in his op-ed that his first donation to the school the year after he graduated was $5.00, which was all he could afford.

Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels told the Washington Post that “as a consequence of Mike Bloomberg’s extraordinary gift, we will be fully and permanently need-blind in our admissions and be able to substantially enrich the level of direct assistance we provide to our undergraduate students and their families.”

Bloomberg, who with great fanfare last month re-registered as a Democrat, is rumored to be planning a run for president in 2020.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount