Turning campaign donations into matching funds for foundations

Two billion dollars spent on the presidential campaigns in November. Tens of millions of dollars spent on ballot measures and campaigns in California.  What if donors to candidates and ballot measures made an equal dollar investment in LEFs? What a provocative idea!  That’s exactly what Louis Freedberg (EDSource) and Carl Cohn (California State Board of Education) suggested in an Op-Ed piece written for The Sacramento Bee newspaper. They said concerned citizens and groups should donate either to their local LEF or to CCEF in regions not served by an education foundation yet. Find out how you can spread this Big Idea!

Political campaigning shifts to

budget decision-making

Passage of Proposition 30 removes the immediate threat of automatic trigger cuts in public education funding. However, California’s budget woes are far from over. Advocacy will remain a priority for local education foundations and CCEF in 2013. Critical decisions are still on the table about California’s Common Core curriculum, Department of Education realignment, restoring prior budget cuts to schools, and imposing a weighted funding formula that will drastically alter funding among school districts. This fall ― through our advisories and recent webcast with University of San Diego Professor Pat Libby ― CCEF focused on advocacy and the role of education foundations in education-related policy debates.