Foundation for New Education Initiatives (FNEI)

Programs

The Parent Academy is a year-round program offered to parents of Miami-Dade County students that is funded by the Foundation for New Education Initiatives but managed by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. ⁵

Financials

According to tax documents, the Foundation for New Education Initiatives provided nearly $5 million in assistance to Miami-Dade County public schools during 2021 ⁶ and approximately $3.6 million in 2020. ⁷ The Foundation for New Education Initiatives received $2.3 million in government funding grants in 2021 ⁸ and $2.2 million in 2020. ⁹

The Foundation for New Education Initiatives receives funding from the Tonkinson Foundation ¹⁰  and the Jose Milton Foundation. ¹¹ Between 2010 to 2019, the Knight Foundation, a left-leaning private foundation, allocated nearly $2 million dollars to FNEI. ¹² The United Way of Miami-Dade allocated $5,000 to FNEI in 2019. ¹³ The Alvah H & Wyline P Chapman Foundation (Chapman Foundation) granted FNEI $62,500 between 2018 and 2021. ^{14 15 16 17}

Scandal

The Office of the Inspector General for Miami-Dade County Public Schools investigated the Foundation for New Education Initiatives regarding a donation from K12, an online learning platform company. The donation of $1.57 million was solicited by Alberto Carvalho, who was the Associate Superintendent in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Grants, Marketing, and Community Services at the time. With the donation, teachers were supposed to receive a $100 gift card if they qualified. ¹ The donation by K12 was announced a day before the school board was to vote on whether to continue using K12’s online platform. ¹⁸

In June 2021, it was announced that there were “no actual violations” related to the donation, however, Carvalho’s solicitation of the $1.6 million created an “appearance of impropriety.” ¹⁹

According to tax documents filed between 2020 ²⁰ and 2021, FNEI attained a new executive director, Ann Pierce Stith. ²¹

People

Alberto Carvalho

Alberto Carvalho became superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools in 2008 just months before founding the Foundation for New Education Initiatives. He served as the superintendent to the nation’s third-largest school system for 14 years. Carvalho came to the United States at the age of 17 with no papers, but once he obtained a degree and began his teaching career, he was promoted to assistant principal, then became superintendent. In 2010, he founded iPrep Academy and named himself principal. In 2014, Carvalho was named Florida’s Superintendent of the Year and National Superintendent of the Year. In 2018, he was named National Urban Superintendent of the Year and in 2019 the National Association for Bilingual Education Superintendent of the Year.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, Carvalho’s school district struggled to transition to online learning and experienced cyber-attacks and software outages. He openly disagreed with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) over masking and vaccination policies in schools. ¹⁹

Since February 2022, Carvalho has served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district. ²²

Jose L. Dotres

Jose L. Dotres is the superintendent of schools for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and sits on the board of the Foundation for New Education Initiatives. In June 2023, the Miami-Dade School Board voted to extend Dr. Dotres’s contract an additional three years. ²³ Dotres has participated in organizations such as the Council of the Great City Schools and has presented to the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and the Florida House of Representatives’ PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee on Education. ²⁴