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Article Launched: 2/4/2008 1:29 PM PST

New foundation to raise funds for schools across Santa Clara County

A new countywide education foundation that will serve as a clearinghouse for businesses and individuals interested in giving to public schools was launched Monday, hoping to tap the collective wealth of Silicon Valley and channel it to science and math education.

The Silicon Valley Education Foundation is a merger of two foundations - the San Jose Education Foundation, which served schools in cities, and the Santa Clara County Education Foundation, which served the unincorporated areas of the county.

"It's a friendly merger," said U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell. "The dividends will benefit school children in the valley."

Education foundations large and small raise millions of dollars each year for schools and districts across the valley, paying for arts and music programs, books and school materials, and grants to teachers. But the "challenge is a fractured school community," said Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe and vice chairman of the new foundation.

Santa Clara County has 33 public school districts plus one adult education district. So for businesses interested in making a valley-wide impact on education, he said, there isn't a central place to give.

"In my humble opinion, this is more exciting than the pending merger of Microsoft and Yahoo," Chizen joked.

Chizen chaired the Santa Clara Education Foundation, a group launched a year ago by former county schools Superintendent Colleen Wilcox, who was in the audience during Monday's news conference to announce the launch of the foundation.

In addition to Honda and Wilcox, the news conference drew high-tech honchos, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and city council members and school superintendents from across the county.

The combined foundation can leverage its broad reach to tap Silicon Valley companies and individuals, said Muhammed Chaudry, president of the new foundation.

"Now we'll have a singular voice," said Faysal Sohail, board chairman of the new foundation and general partner of CMEA Ventures, a venture capital firm. He is former board chairman of the San Jose Education Foundation.

"The resources are immense here," he said. "Now we can work to make a bigger impact."

School districts also stand to gain by having a unified voice to compete for limited private donations, said Manny Barbara, superintendent of the Oak Grove Elementary School District.

"A lot of people outside of the area think of San Jose as one large urban school district," Barbara said. "We're not. Now we can focus on the need of the entire valley."

Some East Side Union High School District officials were initially concerned that the new foundation might hurt its own ability to attract donors.
Superintendent Bob Nuñez said he will proceed with plans to establish an East Side education foundation before the end of the school year. He said he does not see the East Side foundation competing with the new countywide foundation.

"I think any foundation for education is good," Nuñez said.

"Competition is not an issue," said East Side trustee Eddie Garcia. The district, he said, can focus on its own demographic: Almost half of the county's 26,000 students are Latino and more than one third are Asians.

At the news conference, officials also announced $2.1 million in grants for the new foundation. A $600,000 grant from Cisco Systems will pay for development of software that allows teachers to share lesson plans online. A $1.7 million grant from the Knight Foundation will fund work to create a school curriculum that focuses on science, technology, engineering and math.