OUR COMMUNITY HAS BEEN TESTED. OUR SCHOOLS ARE HOW WE REMAIN CONNECTED.
Malibu is not a typical suburb. It is a 27-mile stretch of coastline, separated from the rest of Los Angeles by mountains and by intention. Its residents choose to be here, drawn by the landscape, the pace, and a community that, when things get hard, tends to pull toward each other.
In the past few decades, things have gotten hard. The Woolsey Fire. The Palisades Fire. Evacuations that scattered families for weeks. A school district divorce, decades in the making, that has left Malibu in limbo between institutions built for other communities. Rising costs, declining enrollment, and the very real threat that programs families count on will simply disappear.
And yet: the schools are still here. The teachers are still here. The kids, resilient in ways that would surprise you, are still showing up.
Schools are not just where children learn. They are where communities remember who they are.
Disasters fracture communities in ways that outlast the emergency. Families relocate. Neighbors who shared school drop-offs no longer share a zip code. The small, repeated rituals of community life - the Friday games, the spring concerts, the playgrounds where kids run into each other - turn out to be load-bearing walls that nobody noticed until they were gone.
Malibu has felt this. The question we keep returning to is not whether the community will recover (it will) but what it recovers around it. What is the thing that brings families back, keeps them here, and gives the next generation a reason to stay.
We believe the answer is the schools.
California ranks 15th in per-pupil education spending nationally, but even at $20,233 per student, the gap between what is funded and what a genuinely strong school requires, falls on communities to fill in. In Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills, education foundations have been filling that gap for decades. In Malibu MEF is closing that gap, and building something that lasts.
The Malibu Education Foundation was established in 2024 as the only organization authorized by SMMUSD to raise funds for staff and programs across all four Malibu public schools.
We are not supplemental. We are structural.
The instructional aides, the arts teachers, the community service liaison, the strength and conditioning coaches, the academic tutors — without funding, many of these positions do not exist
As Malibu moves toward its own unified school district, MEF’s role grows more important, not less. The formation of Malibu Unified isn’t just a governance change, it’s a chance to build a district that reflects what Malibu’s community actually values. MEF is part of that foundation. The transition requires bridge funding. The new district will need time to build its financial footing. MEF is how Malibu’s students get through that gap without losing the programs they’ve built their school experience around.
Malibu's goal is simple: world-class public schools. Not adequate. Not average. The best.
To understand where we are — and what's possible — we look at Palo Alto Unified, California's #1 ranked district. Not because rankings tell the whole story, and not because money alone makes great schools. Great schools are built by great teachers, engaged families, strong leadership, and a community that shows up. But sustained investment makes all of those things more possible. It attracts and retains the best educators. It funds the programs that keep students engaged. It builds the infrastructure that lets great teaching happen.
Palo Alto has been building that investment for 46 years. Malibu is in year two. The gap between us is not a reflection of what Malibu's students deserve — it's a reflection of how long we've been at this. That changes now.
THIS IS OUR MOMENT
This is the moment when what we do, or don’t do, for Malibu’s schools will be visible for generations to come. We are asking you to be part of building something that holds our community together.