Monday, Jul. 28, 2008

Foundations pick up slack for Modesto-area schools

They help out during tight budgets but can widen the rich-poor gap

Ruth Ramsay transformed her third-grade classroom into a hip and trendy cafe for just one evening. Her students at La Rosa Elementary School in Ceres shared the spotlight, reading poetry they wrote for friends and family at an open-microphone coffeehouse.

Funding didn't come from the school budget. Ramsay used a $200 "minigrant" to buy decorations, refreshments and the special paper on which students wrote their poems.

Without the money from the Ceres Unified School District Foundation, and others like it, there would be no "poetry cafes" or other enriching experiences in many schools.

As state budget cuts force school administrators to trim or eliminate art, theater, music and other programs, public school districts are looking to nonprofit foundations to pick up the slack.

"Foundations have always been important, but more so now," said Sandy DeWalt, coordinator at the Modesto Junior College Foundation.

Of Stanislaus County's 25 school districts, only a handful have foundations. They raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a variety of programs, from field trips to furnishing schools with books and playground equipment.

Some have been around since the early 1990s, such as in the Sylvan Union School District. Others have started up in the past few years, such as at the Stanislaus Union School District. The money comes from parents, businesses and the community.

Although the foundations provide access to programs and items cut from state and school district budgets, they can widen the achievement gap between students attending "poor" districts and those who go to "rich" districts, educators said.

State funding has eroded for programs that do not fall into the four academic subjects: math, English, history and science. Schools also must seek outside ways to fund field trips to missions, museums and aquariums, all of which are considered important to a student's education even though it's a break from reading, writing and arithmetic.

'Robin Hood in reverse'

But students attending schools in poorer districts are less likely to have foundations filling the funding gap, said Arnold Fege, director of public engagement and advocacy at the Washington, D.C.-based Public Education Network. Those students will end up lacking exposure to these outside-the-classroom ventures that help mold well-rounded citizens.

Foundations often lead to "private public schools in the making," Fege said, calling the trend "Robin Hood in reverse."

PEN is a national group that focuses efforts on helping smaller, rural and low-income school districts establish foundations.

"Foundations are safety nets. Safety nets should be with the disadvantaged students," Fege said, noting that intervention programs needed by those students tend to be the first ones eliminated during budget cuts. And those districts have no foundations to help pick up those programs.

In 2006, California education foundations raised more than $130 million, according to the California Consortium of Education Foundations.

Minigrants for teachers are the most popular way for locals to supplement student learning. The grants range from $100 to $2,000, and awardees usually are chosen by the foundation board of directors.

"Teacher minigrants are by far the most widely used activity. It's logical, it gets money right into the classroom," said Susan Sweeney, executive director of the California Consortium of Education Foundations. "It's also a way to reward teachers for being creative, for being more effective."