With the help of private donors, the Education of Lake County has received $77,548.76 in matching funds from the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (CFEF).

This financial boost will support Lake County, A Destination District, a matching grant program in partnership with Duke Energy and The Able Trust.

Lake County Schools students and teachers will benefit in a variety of ways, including:

• Career and Technical Education programs that promote academic advancement, job training and employability skills.
• The Education Foundation’s mini-grant program where teachers can apply for financial assistance to integrate innovative, hands-on learning experiences in the classroom.
• The district-wide robotics competition which exposes students to math, coding, and engineering in an exciting team environment.
• The High School High Tech program which is designed to motivate students with all types of disabilities to graduate high school and pursue their interests in STEM-related careers.

Through the collaborative effort of its members, the CFEF successfully advocated for the creation of legislative matching funds in 2000 which has provided a dollar-for-dollar incentive for local education foundations to raise private contributions for eligible projects.

Since then, more than $114 million in combined private and state dollars has been employed for local projects that serve low-performing students and literacy initiatives, encourage STEM and career/technical education, improve teaching quality, and/or increase graduation rates.