Education Reformers Renew Fight for School Vouchers, Launch New American Federation for Children

New advocacy group will support school vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs, and charter schools in battle to improve educational options

March 15, 2010 (Washington, D.C.) — School choice supporters from across the country today renewed the fight to create school voucher programs for disadvantaged children, announcing the creation of a new organization—the American Federation for Children—to lead the education reform movement in state-level school choice advocacy efforts. (www.FederationForChildren.org)

The 501(c)(4) organization, which will focus its efforts on supporting school voucher programs and scholarship tax credit programs, will also work to strengthen charter school laws and expand public school choice. The organization, which hopes to build upon the success of America’s 18 successful publicly-funded private school choice programs, will focus on advocating for the creation of new private school choice programs and to protect existing programs from legislative attack.

“No child in America should ever be confined to a failing school when better options are sometimes just blocks away,” said Betsy DeVos, the organization’s chairman. “Political gamesmanship and special interests should never stand in the way of providing children with access to great schools. We know that it takes smart public policy—and political backbone—to bring about the types of school choice programs that provide families with better educational opportunities. That is why we have created the American Federation for Children.”

To help maximize its effectiveness, the Federation will work closely with a newly-formed political committee, the American Federation for Children PAC, to support candidates committed to enacting voucher programs and charter school expansion at the state level. The Federation will collaborate with its official 501(c)(3) partner, the nonprofit Alliance for School Choice, on public education programs.

The American Federation for Children has offices and staff located across the country. The organization replaces Advocates for School Choice as the nation’s leading state-level lobbying group for school choice efforts.

For more information on the new American Federation for Children, visit www.FederationForChildren.org.