Why are donations needed for public school?
For many families, the quality of our schools in the Del Mar Union School District (DMUSD) is the number one reason they move to our area. Many families assume that local funds through property taxes increase the dollars provided to our district, but this is not the case.
Bridging the Funding Gap
In California, public funds are not enough to provide a well-rounded, hands-on experience we want for our students’ education. So, our district has taken the funding on themselves, however, they can only cover 60% to help supplement local funding for the STEAM+ program, specifically the teachers’ salaries. In 2000, the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation (DMSEF) was set up to cover the other 40% shortfall. With parent and community support, our school district is able to retain the STEAM+ teachers needed for an enhanced public-school education that includes hands-on, engaging curriculum and authentic learning experiences that prepare students for a future where they will think, innovate, and create.
These programs would be severely impacted and reduced if we relied solely on state funding, as it did back in 2018, when our district had a loss of teachers because DMSEF was not able to raise sufficient funds to hire enough STEAM+ teachers throughout the district.
Since 2000, DMSEF has been reliably raising money to grant DMUSD the annual shortfall. This enables the district to plan and run quality programs with stability in hiring and scheduling. These grants have allowed the district to year-in and year-out count on DMSEF well in advance of each school year’s programming. Although the money we donate to DMSEF goes to the district’s general fund at the end of each school year, it is earmarked solely to be used for STEAM+ and those teachers’ salaries. Due to the rising cost of teachers’ salaries, Proposition 28 helps to pay for these increases while still keeping the shortfall that DMSEF has to raise consistently at $800/student.
By funding at the district level, DMUSD provides teachers across multiple schools that individual schools would not be able to afford on their own. For example, several schools may share a PE or music teacher, splitting the cost and time while all benefiting from the teacher’s commitment to our students. Since PTAs are not allowed to fund classroom teachers, the donations to DMSEF are the only way to fund additional teaching staff at our schools.
Funding processes
1. Parents and community members contribute to the DMSEF throughout the school year.
2. DMSEF provides a grant to DMUSD in June.
3. DMUSD hires teachers and ensures that the curriculum provides a well-rounded education at every school.
· Each Spring, DMUSD determines its’ curriculum objectives for the following school year and communicates its’ financial needs to DMSEF.
· DMSEF identifies an appropriate fundraising goal with DMUSD for the next school year based on the projected enrollment, recent giving trends, economic climate, and other factors.
· DMSEF meets with the District to communicate how much money it can expect to receive from the foundation for the following year.
· DMUSD determines the curriculum, manages teachers and staff, and provides additional funding for these programs. For the 2025-2026 school year, DMSEF will be supporting DMUSD in funding 7.04 full-time STEAM+ credentialed teachers.
DMSEF FUNDING OVERVIEW
For the 2025-26 school year, DMSEF provided a $950,000 grant to DMUSD to help fund STEAM+. DMUSD provided an additional approximate amount of $2,650,000 and Prop 28 added an approximate amount of $600,000 to fund STEAM+ programs. The grant breakdown is as follows:
Your student and every student in our nine elementary schools benefit from it, and it is the only way for parents to fund DMUSD teaching staff in our district.
Aren’t our local schools fully funded by our property taxes?
Unfortunately, not, even with the high housing values in our school district. This is due to the impact of Prop. 13 which reduced funding for education by decreasing the property tax rate to 1% as well as limiting annual increases on everyone’s property tax bill. The county then distributes that 1% to K-12 school districts, community colleges, and other public agencies. “In one fell swoop it really decimated the amount of money available to schools at the local level,” says San Diego State University professor Jennifer Imazeki, who studies the economics of K-12 education.* DMUSD, and similar districts throughout California, are faced with a gap between what it actually costs to provide the well-rounded, high-quality education students receive versus the funding the state and local taxes provides.
Data from www.ed-data.org
Most Basic Aid School Districts have foundations set up and ask for parents contributions. A sample of a few elementary school districts in CA that raise funds specifically for STEM teachers are: Solana Beach ask is $500-600 per student but they offer less STEAM+ classes and less time in each class than DMUSD; Los Altos ask is $1,400 per student; San Carlos ask is $1,850 per student; and Saratoga Education Foundation ask is $1,000 per student.
* Vanessa Rancano, “How Proposition 13 Transformed Neighborhood Public Schools Throughout California” KQED, The California Report, Oct 25, 2018.USSinc