LTEF and EEF provide extra funding to ISDs
The Eanes Education Foundation, formed in 1991, and the Lake Travis Education Foundation, created in 1985, use donated funds to offset financial shortages in their respective school districts, including losses caused by the state-mandated Robin Hood plan. This plan redistributes revenue from wealthier areas to property-poor districts.
Because of the Robin Hood plan, "EISD keeps less than 50 percent of [its] property tax revenue," EEF Executive Director Wally Moore said. Similarly, LTEF's website says that "LTISD loses millions in tax dollars annually."
Nonprofit organizations EEF and LTEF allow the private dollars raised by each foundation to remain wholly within the school district, funding programs that each district considers essential for its standard of excellence.
For instance, DeEtta Culbertson, Texas Education Agency Division of Communications, said that the state is not required to fund a school or district nurse, librarian, counselor or campus technology coordinator at any of its levels—elementary, middle and high school.
Each foundation is governed by a board of directors that coordinates fundraising efforts to provide these and other district teachers, administrators and programs.
Eanes Education Foundation
EEF has given a total of $6.365 million to EISD since 2004. The foundation focuses on two major initiatives for raising funds: an annual giving campaign in the fall and an annual gala in the spring, Moore said.
Each of the district's nine schools receive funds proportionally based on enrollment. In the 2012–13 school year, the foundation funded 24 positions in the district.
Beginning in 2008, the EEF sponsored the Partnership for Teacher Excellence Program that provides tuition scholarships for district teachers enrolled in a master's degree program. In May, the program graduated its fifth class of teachers earning master's degrees, Moore said.
Lake Travis Education Foundation
In its infancy, LTEF primarily awarded in-district student scholarships and has since expanded the program to fund $242,000 in scholarship and grant awards for the 2012–13 school year, said Michael Cowan, 2013–14 LTEF president.
"In the last five to six years, the giving has ramped up as the district has grown up and its needs increased," Cowan said.
LTISD and LTEF agreed May 1 to share responsibility and financial resources, LTISD Director of Communications Marco Alvarado said. Alvarado said that LTISD will add a staff member—a director of development and corporate relations—who will also serve the foundation as its executive director.
The change allows LTEF and LTISD to coordinate their requests.
"The district contacts give the foundation a broader scope of donors and a more coordinated outreach effort," Cowan said.
Education foundations
Eanes ISD Education Foundation, 601 Camp Craft Road, Austin, 512-732-9065,www.eaneseducationfoundation.org
Lake Travis ISD Education Foundation, P.O. Box 340759, Austin, 512-533-6095,www.laketraviseducationfoundation.org
