to academic initiatives such as international baccalaureate programs or science and language instruction. Some direct their monies to a school or district in general. A type of fundraising organization for public elementary and secondary schools that has emerged more recently is the local education foundation (LEF). Most such organizations refer to themselves explicitly as foundations, but in recent years it has become more common for them to adopt the moniker of “Friends” of a particular school or district. The California Consortium of Education Foundations (CCEF) reports that there are currently 675 local education foundations active in the state. This is a large number, but it should be kept in mind that there are nearly 1,000 school districts in California and nearly 14,000 individual schools. Several scholars have traced the emergence and growth of LEF’s, in California as well as other states, to school finance reforms that have adversely affected school district revenue (Brunner and Sonstelie 1997; Zimmer et al. 2001; Brunner and Imazeki 2005). As Figures 1 and 2 show, virtually all LEF’s in California have been founded in the years following Proposition 13. LEF websites frequently indicate that their mission is to address shortfalls in state funding levels. The following examples are typical: "With ongoing budget cuts from the State of California, public education is facing more hurdles every year to providing a strong, vibrant education for our children need. Simply put, our children would not be educated adequately without private funding." – Alameda Education Foundation. “Tax dollars, alone, are not enough to best prepare our students for the world and workforce they will enter.” – Carlsbad Educational Foundation. “MBEF helps fill the gap between what the state provides the district and what it costs to provide a well-rounded, quality education for students.” – Manhattan Beach Education Foundation. “Kiddo! was founded in response to the passage of Proposition 13, which drastically reduced property taxes and, correspondingly, public school funding. The school
Contributions —— —— .231 (.047) —— —— c -1181 (119) -361 (167) -1918 (214) n 785 785 785 R2 .49 .31 .49 References Brunner, Eric, and Jon Sonstelie. 1997. “Coping with Serrano: Voluntary Contributions to California’s Local Public Schools.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference on Taxation, National Tax Association. Brunner, Eric, and Jon Sonstelie. 2003. “School Finance Reform and Voluntary Fiscal Federalism.” Journal of Public Economics 87:2157-2185. Brunner, Eric J. and Jennifer Imazeki. 2005. “Fiscal Stress and Voluntary Contributions to Public Schools.” Developments in School Finance: 2004. Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2013. “Consumer Price Index.” Retrieved March 23, from http://www.bls.gov/cpi/. California Consortium of Education Foundations. 2010. “Foundations Facilities & Staffing Survey.” Retrieved from . California Department of Education DataQuest. 2013. Retrieved March 23 from . Carroll, Deborah A. and Thad Calabrese. 2013. “Alternative Service Delivery: Does Nonprofit Financing Influence State Tax Burden?” The American Review of Public Administration. 43:200-20. Census Bureau. 2013. “American Fact Finder.” Retrieved March 22 from . Deitrick, Laura J. 2009. California Education Foundations: A Mixed Methods Study. Doctoral Dissertation, University of San Diego. EdSource. 2013. “School Finance.” 2013. Retrieved March 22 from http://www.edsource.org/school-finance.html.