As "They" Say, "Beneath All Is The Foundation"

This is the kind of public education we need more of. I love it when people read with interpretational intent.

From a previous post, a critical reader in the form of an anon has presented very interesting information. Thankfully, anons can still get their ideas out.


I wanted to make sure this anon was not spouting off misinformation, so I read the report and did the math. Looks good to me. All we are now left with is trying to answer anon's question about the school system donating money to an entity that was designed to lessen the burden on the school system.

I would add one thing. Read the donor list carefully. It does have Alafia Elementary in there. Who knows.

Here is the full context:

Blogger: PRO on HCPS - Post a Comment: "I suggest that you read the 2007 Annual Report available at the same site.

The Education Foundation reports that they raised $6,470,000 in 2007. But 15% of that money is from the Hillsborough School District itself. When the Foundation was conceieved, it was meant to make a 'small' investment (a few hundred thousand dollars) in order to garner private funds for the school district. Why then did the school in one year allocate almost a million dollars of taxpayer funds to an organization that funds programs that are not or cannot be funded by taxpayer dollars? I am sure that the Foundation is designed to do good things. But I see what was once a small grass-roots effort to raise funds for our schools ballooning into a multi-million dollar organization that, per a 2007 report, holds 10 million dollars in assets and yet is still siphoning almost a million dollars from our school's annual budget. Factor in that the Foundation's President earned 2.3% of the funds raised ($147,500 in 2007) and an additional unknown amount is paid to other employees (the number of Foundation employees now stands at 20). Of course there are plenty of other operating costs. So how much of that almost 1 million dollars of taxpayer money went directly to benefit our students, teachers and classrooms?

How much of Ms. Elia's $42K bonus will benefit our students, teachers and classrooms, and how much will benefit other interests or costs associated with the Foundation?

Since the Foundation now has sizable assets, does it continue to require the annual infusion of cash from our school district? Is $970,000 an appropriate amount of annual support for our school system's education foundation?
December 21, 2008 12:17 PM"