Longfellow Elementary parents in Long Beach are among them. After learning of the potential state budget cuts, combined with the loss of some federal funding, parents decided to create the Longfellow Legacy Foundation.
Jim Zellerbach, a co-founder with two children at the school, said the group hopes to boost campus coffers by the 2009-10 school year, too late to stop anticipated cuts to the school nurse, librarian and other programs expected in the coming school year.
Longtime foundations are also stepping up their efforts. The Irvine Public Schools Foundation, which raises $3 million annually and has raffled off a house each year since 2004, is convinced that state cuts are only going to slice closer to the bone in coming years. To prepare, the group is launching a university-like fundraising effort this fall, complete with an endowment.
"The only way to take good districts and make them great is to do private fundraising. But it's even more urgent now with the terrible budget cuts," said Jerry Mandel, the foundation's chief operating officer.
Even in rosier financial times, parents are bombarded with requests for money for proms and yearbooks, field trips and gym clothes. And they get fed up.
Jill Case, whose son is a senior at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, said she spends $100 to $200 at the start of each school year and writes frequent additional checks throughout the year. Case, who runs a nonprofit organization that helps disabled children and senior citizens, said she does not think she can afford to write a $400 check to the foundation of the school district, Capistrano Unified.
"There's an assumption that everyone here is rich and what's the big deal," said Case, of Laguna Niguel. "But there are families that are struggling. That's what bothers me the most. The truth is, I've been struggling too. You always come up with something for your kids. You don't want them to feel left out. . . . That's not the way it's supposed to be in public schools."
Those concerns are driving the second goal of foundations across the state: raising public awareness of how schools are funded in California. The state ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending.
Schools in the Alameda Unified School District have reduced their budgets by $7.7 million in seven years. So when community members learned that the governor's proposed budget would mean an additional $4.5 million in cuts next year, they placed a parcel tax for schools on the June ballot, their second in four years.
