Jeff Bezos is about to open a tuition-free preschool called the Bezos Academy where ’the child will be the customer’

• Jeff Bezos is weeks away from opening the first Bezos Academy, a tuition-free preschool for underserved kids. 
• Bezos shared a photo of one of the classrooms on his Instagram page, announcing that the school, which is located in Des Moines, Washington, will open on October 19.
• Bezos Academy is the first of many Montessori-inspired schools where “the child will be the customer.” The schools are part of Bezos’ Day 1 Academies Fund, which he announced in 2018. 
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is weeks away from opening the doors to his first preschool, the Bezos Academy. 

Bezos on Tuesday shared a photo of one of the classrooms on his Instagram, revealing that the school, which is located in Des Moines, Washington, will open on October 19. Bezos said the school is “the first of many free preschools that we’ll be opening for underserved children.”

This classroom is just the beginning. The @bezosacademy opens its doors on Oct. 19th. This one in Des Moines, WA, is the first of many free preschools that we’ll be opening for underserved children. Extra kudos to the team for figuring out how to make this happen even amidst COVID, and to Wesley Homes for stepping up with the facility.

A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos) on Sep 22, 2020 at 6:30am PDTSep 22, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

Bezos Academy is a “Montessori-inspired” preschool that will serve children between the ages of 3 and 5. The schools will be full-day and year-round, and will be tuition free for its students. 

According to a post on the Bezos Academy Instagram account, the team began working on the schools early last year. Other posts from the page, which began posting photos in August, show Bezos touring Montessori schools around the country, meeting with students in Nashville and Washington, DC.

Bezos announced his push into education in 2018, when he unveiled his two philanthropic initiatives: the Day 1 Families Fund and the Day 1 Academies Fund. Both initiatives are funded by the Bezos Day One Fund, to which Bezos committed $2 billion at the time.

The mission of the Academies Fund was to create a network of preschools in which "the child will be the customer." The schools will be directly operated by Bezos' fund, which "creates an opportunity to learn, invent, and improve" upon early childhood education, according to the fund's website.

The schools began hiring for several positions, including Montessori specialists and a head of school, earlier this year, GeekWire reported at the time. Mike George, Amazon's former vice president of Echo and Alexa, currently leads the Academies Fund's efforts.