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What are public school foundations?
Education foundations are “privately operated, nonprofit organizations established to assist public schools” and who qualify as charitable organizations, “different from school districts, public institutions or local governments” (Clay, Hughes,
Seely & Thayer, 1985). A public school foundation “is designed to augment, supplement, or complement programs and activities currently being provided by the district” (McCormick, Baver & Ferguson, 2001). Currently in
the US there are over 4,800 school foundations in 16,000 school districts (McCormick et al., 2001). They have their own board of directors and their own staff, both paid and volunteer. A foundation mainly provides for what a school district falls short to cover; however, in some cases, foundations helped cover for basic educational expenses.
Most school foundations operate as “an independent entity, with no formal, legal relationship to the school district” (De Luna, 1995, p.8). Foundations can specify in their bylaws whether the school board will get involvement in voting or not.
Resources
Clay, K., Hughes, K.S., Seely, J.G., Thayer A.N., (1989). Public school
foundations: Their organization and operation. Arlington,
VA: Educational Research Service.
McCormick, D.H., Bauer, D.G., & Ferguson, D.E. (2001). Creating
foundations
for American schools. Gaithersburg, MA: Aspen Publishers.
De Luna, P. (1995). The education foundation: Raising private funds for public schools
(Report No. ISSN-0733-2548). Eugene, OR: Oregon School Study Council. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.390
152)
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