History

Palo Alto Partners in Education was created by the merging of Palo Alto Foundation for Education (PAFE) and the All Schools Fund (ASF) in 2004-05. In its first year, Partners in Education gave $1.8 million to the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) to support elementary and secondary schools and to promote teacher excellence through teacher grants.

The Palo Alto Foundation for Education (PAFE), founded in 1987, supported academic programs within the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD). Its accomplishments range from a successful annual $100,000 teacher grants campaign to its recently completed $1,000,000 campaign to equip new science labs in Palo Alto’s two high schools. All Schools Fund (ASF) was created in 2002 to raise, distribute and provide supplemental financial support for the schools of PAUSD, to ensure the highest quality educational programs and opportunities for all Palo Alto children. Created after the District passed a K-12 policy restricting staff hiring to district-wide funding only, ASF raised nearly $1.2 million in its first fundraising year.

The idea of private foundations created to support public schools gained momentum in California after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1976. By limiting the property tax base, Proposition 13 endangered funding for public schools. Many foundations were created to funnel money directly into their school districts to save academic programs. Other foundations were created to fund mini-grants to support teachers and students directly and to stimulate and enable teachers and administrators to try new and innovative classroom programs and projects.

In 1982, the California Coalition for Education Foundations was created as a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public education by building the capacity of the 500 local education foundations in California. For more information about education foundations in California, see www.cceflink.org.