Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, announced on Tuesday that his charitable organization is donating $600m million to four historically Black medical schools.
The landmark gifts, made by his Bloomberg Philanthropies group, will give $175m each to Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia. Another $75m is headed to Charles R Drew University of Medicine & Science in California, according to a news release from Bloomberg.
Class sizes and anticipated growth determined the funding levels, the organization said, adding that an extra $5m will be given to support a new medical school in New Orleans being created by Xavier University of Louisiana – another historically Black institution – and Ochsner Health, a prominent hospital network in that region.