After a billionaire announced he would pay off student loan debt for Morehouse College grads, the comparisons to another billionaire were inevitable.
Robert F. Smith announced he would pay off student loans debt for the entire 2019 graduating class during his speech at the college’s commencement ceremonies in Atlanta on Sunday.
The news rocketed around the Internet at warp speed after Morehouse students tweeted about Smith’s generous gift.
Meanwhile, billionaire Oprah Winfrey also opened her purse for students at a Newark, NJ school last week.
Oprah Winfrey paid a surprise visit to West Side High School, where principal Akbar Cook started the Lights On program for children to hang out after school.
Oprah announced she was donating $500,000 to the program. She made the announcement to the packed gymnasium of screaming kids.
Cook keeps the lights on for the program with generous donations from people like Ellen DeGeneres, who donated $100,000. But Oprah’s gift is the largest single donation to the school.
Still, some people think Oprah’s efforts aren’t enough.
Over the weekend, Oprah spoke at the University of Colorado commencement ceremony. Afterward, she posted a photo of herself with an excited graduate. She wrote that she “shook hands with all 571 members” of the graduating class and she gifted them with copies of her book The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose.
But one follower thought she didn’t do enough.
“Should have paid off their student debt,” the follower wrote in Oprah’s comments on Instagram.
Oprah had time to set the guy straight, writing, “already paid 13m in scholarships. Have put over 400 men through Morehouse.”
The follower quickly deleted his comment, but Oprah’s followers are still flooding her comments with praise and positivity.
