Orange County Register

Really. Who needs a sane way to fund public education when one can mount a raffle?

The Watchdog has been distracted over the last few days by nonprofits raffling off homes to raise money. Brilliant, really.

Yesterday we looked at the financial details of the Ocean Institute (it’s selling $150 tickets and raffling off a $1.2 million home in Laguna Beach) and saw that the home raffle is largely responsible for turning its red ink to black. Today, we’ll look at the Irvine Public Schools Foundation.

In case you missed it - which was rather difficult, considering all the coverage - Donna Palella Johnston swooned Saturday upon winning the grand prize: a $600,000 home in Irvine, or the same in cash.

The odds were quite good: 8,919 tickets sold at $200 each.

SO WHAT DOES THE HOME RAFFLE COST?

According to its web site, “The Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) is the difference between a first class and a world class education for the students of the Irvine Unified School District. Improved health services, health education, fine arts and science, after school and summer enrichment classes, and innovative teaching support in our middle and high schools are just some of the activities funded and managed by IPSF for the benefit of all our students.”

The Foundation’s 2006 tax returns show:

• Expenses surrounding its raffle were $1.25 million;
• It brought in $2.3 million;
• And cleared $1.06 million after all was said and done. 

The Ocean Institute’s raffle didn’t clear quite as much: It cost $1.8 million, brought in $2.6 million and cleared $824,545.

CASH TO CLASSROOM

The Watchdog spent some time with the Foundation’s tax returns, where she found that the amount of money going into “program services” - the key mission of the nonprofit, which is supporting the schools - was $3.67 million, or 85 percent of expenses, according to the most recent tax returns. That’s considered quite good.

About $3.1 million of that was in aid to classrooms, including:

• $1.9 million cash donation to the Irvine Unified School District (for class-size reduction, health programs, etc.)
• $912,046 for educational program expenses  (music classes; after-school classes in science, theater, language, sports, etc.)
• $217,000 for teacher training (including Programs to Advance Cultural Education, most recently briefing teachers on the Korean and Persian cultures of so many children in their classrooms)

WHY? WHY? WHY?

OK, let’s talk about the pink elephant in the room. Why do we need home raffles to support public education?!

“When the state originally decided on funding formulas for schools many years ago, things were divided up between urban and rural areas,” said CEO Jerry Mandel. “The Irvine Ranch was a lot of land. It was considered rural. So the schools get less funding per student than urban schools.

“Why don’t we change it?” he continued. “The problem is, politically, if we change ours, one of the urban districts is going to lose something, so they fight it. So we’ll raise our own then.”

Mandel - who was president of the Orange County Performing ArtsCenter and vice chancellor of advancement at UCI - predicts that a foundation will be part of every public school district in the next few years. “It has to be. You’ll find one now at every public university, at community colleges. The public schools aren’t any different. The state provides the basics, but if you want excellence, you have to do it yourself.”

SMILE! THE THREE-YEAR $NAPSHOT

A review of IPSF’s tax returns from 2004 to 2006 shows that:

• Revenues were down 25 percent, from $5.6 million to $4.2 million (multi-year grants ran out, Mandel said).
• Expenses rose half-a-percent ($4.28 million to $4.3 million).
• Program spending was up 18 percent ($3.1 million to $3.67 million).
• Management spending was up 28 percent, from $257,433 to $330,104 (two new professional fundraisers have been hired to boost donations)
• and net assets were up 22 percent ($3.3 million to $4 million).

WHO’S MAKING WHAT

The head honcho makes less than the national nonprofit CEO average of $150,000, which is good. Top salaries:

• Tim Shaw, CEO, $129,628
• Nick Matthews, chief operations officer, $79,453
• Julie Tapp, chief program officer, $82,983

HOME RAFFLE BRAINSTORM

Says Kate Mossbarger, publicist for the foundation’s raffle:

“It was Loucinda Carlton who came up with Orange County’s original house raffle and spear-headed the effort to get it off the ground. Just like many O.C. parents, Loucinda contributes her time and talent to help her community, especially the under-funded Irvine public schools her two children attend. About six years ago, Loucinda approached the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) with the idea of raffling off a house to raise funds for local students during the Foundation’s ‘big idea’ meeting. She has chaired the fundraiser each year and organized the army of volunteers that help make the house raffle possible.

“Now, four house raffles, 41,000 tickets and more than $8.4 million later, Loucinda’s big idea and dedicated work - which amounts to nearly a full-time job - has proven a huge success for her community.”

And with people like Carlton, Sacramento can relax about this pesky education-funding thing.

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