Public Schools May Be How Families Find the EFTC

A family cannot apply for a scholarship it does not know exists.

That may end up being one of the more important facts about the Education Freedom Tax Credit when it begins in 2027.

To date, I have spent plenty of time talking about governors, state participation, Scholarship Granting Organizations and Treasury regulations. While these are going to be the people and things that determine whether the program can operate, they don’t determine if a family actually hears about it.

For public-school families, that may be the harder part.

Let's be honest, most parents are not following IRS notices or waiting for their state to publish an SGO list. Realistically, they probably aren’t even aware if their state has opted in or not. But, I can promise you that they are talking to teachers, counselors, principals, special education staff, and CTE staff. In other words, they are talking to people they trust, who are already running the programs their children attend.

That puts public schools in a critical position, and I don’t know if anyone has recognized it yet.

Federal law does not limit these scholarships to private-school tuition. Qualified K–12 expenses include costs born by public-school families, and federal guidance has indicated that these scholarships can fund tutoring and support services for students with disabilities. At FundEDU, our current public-school work is built around the same practical point: families can have eligible education costs even when their child has no intention of changing schools. But we also have seen firsthand that just making support available isn’t enough if no one knows about it.

With the EFTC, the public school does not need to know, or make a decision about if a specific expense qualifies. Instead, the school's job is much simpler. They just need to know where to send the parent who needs help. If you are a public school leader reading this article, I suggest starting with the following questions:

Which SGOs intend to serve families in your community? Who at the district or education foundation keeps that information current? Do counselors know the program exists? Can a parent find one reliable source of information or do they have to try and understand the EFTC from scratch?

It has become clear over the course of the last six months that a decisive factor in how effective the EFTC will be depends upon how many families learn about the opportunity. After all, unlike many other federal education programs, this one operates at the grassroots level, requiring both donors and eligible families to connect with the SGO(s) that best suit their needs. In some states, this will likely result in the development of specialized networks supporting students with special needs. In others, it could lend itself to the establishment of additional transportation networks, or even focus on providing access to essential items like textbooks.

In every case, it requires that our community makes awareness and communication a priority in the coming months and years. After all, we know that some eligible families will never apply. There are always going to be those who hear “education freedom” or “school choice” and reasonably assume the program has nothing to do with a child who attends the neighborhood public school.

Public schools cannot solve every part of that problem, but they can make the introduction.

I would use the remaining months before 2027 to decide what that looks like. Educate faculty and staff, and try to give family-facing staff somewhere reliable (like us at FundEDU!) to refer parents for more information. Start trying to determine who the SGOs are, that are likely to operate in your state. Identify who at your school or district is going to be assigned to establish and maintain those relationships. Most importantly, we want to create a scenario where a parent doesn’t have to understand the tax code to find out whether help is available.

There have already been headlines and articles written that attempt to measure the potential of the EFTC program in dollars to be donated and scholarships to be awarded. However, I personally am interested in numbers that are much harder to estimate: how many eligible families never apply because nobody ever told them they could? How many donors never contribute because they didn’t know the opportunity existed? These are the numbers that will ultimately determine the size and scale of the EFTC, and it's where the public school community has the chance to make the largest impact. By educating and informing your community about this opportunity this fall, they can be ready to give when donations open in January, and to receive when scholarships are awarded next fall.

For district leaders trying to understand where to begin, we at FundEDU have put together a public-school EFTC resource covering eligible expenses, SGO relationships, state participation and the questions districts should be working through now.

The EFTC can’t help your community until your families find it. Acting now can help make sure that they do.

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Public Schools May Be How Families Find the EFTC

FundEDU.org

skool.com/fundedu

Learn how schools, ED foundations, and donors can use educational tax credits like the PA EITC and the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit.

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