East Bay Life
Pages B1-B15
East Bay Life August 17-18, 2016 Page B1
Education foundations filling the gaps BY CHRIST Y NADALIN
cnadalin@eastbaynewspapers.com
Was there ever a time when school administrators could breezily claim "money is no object"? If there was, nobody remembers it. Most years, it seems schools struggle to maintain the same levels of funding and the same access to quality programming and opportunities as in previous years. More often, we hear of programs, sports and extracurricular classes being sacrificed to budgeting, a process that resembles emergency room triage as much as anything else. It's not clear exactly when or where the education foundation movement first appeared nationally; locally, the idea of funneling privately raised funds to teachers via direct grants emerged in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The Barrington Education Foundation (BEF), among the first in the state, initially organized in 1992. Since then the movement has grown. According to the National School Foundation Association (NSFA), there are member foun-
RICHARD W. DIONNE JR.
A member of the Mount Hope High School robotics team, a program that has been funded in part by the Bristol Warren Education Foundation over the years, is focused on the task at hand. dations in all 50 states (though you don't need to be a member of
NSFA to be a legitimate education foundation.)
On the local level, education foundations are 501(c)(3) non-
profit organizations whose boards are comprised of local community, business, and education leaders. While each is unique in its operations, programs and resources, all share a goal of using community-raised resources to improve education at the local level. Approximately 25 percent of public school districts nationwide are now supplemented by education foundations. Foundations typically do not fund “the basics,� (i.e. classroom teachers and sports programs) because they cannot sustain salaries for long periods of time. Instead, they fund enrichment programs that help give teachers the resources they need to expose students to experiences beyond the regular curriculum. In the past 30 years, education foundations have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into educational initiatives and programs nationwide. In the East Bay, Barrington,
See BWEF Page 15