Why do FMS, PTA, and SMFC Education Fund need to raise so much money for our public schools?

Public school funding is very complicated.  Click here for a very good overview of education finance in California Public Schools by San Carlos School Board Member, Seth Rothblatt.  Other great sources of information on school finance include EdSource, WestEd, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).  For funding purposes, California has two different kind of district: revenue limit and basic aid.  In a revenue limit district, the state provides aid to meet the revenue limit of funding set by the state.  In a basic aid district, the district gets to keep the extra property taxes that exceed the revenue limit met by its property taxes.  San Mateo Foster City School District tends to fluctuate between being a Revenue Limit and Basic Aid district; it is currently a Basic Aid district.  In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown introduced a new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to bring greater clarity and equity to how revenue limits are calculated and how categorical funding is distributed.  Please check out the EdSource, WestEd, and LAO resources above for more information.  State education funding provides for the basic needs of each school, but many districts rely on local school foundations to provide supplemental support for existing educational programs or they use bond/tax measures to fund capital improvements.  In many local districts, school foundations ask as much as $2500/child in Hillsborough or $1200 in Belmont-Redwood Shores School District.  At SMFCSD schools like Baywood, the PTA is asking for a donation of $800/child.