American Federation for Children

Every child deserves a high-quality education. But across the country, many children are trapped in failing schools. Too often, low-income and lower middle-income children are often forced to attend schools that simply don’t work. These children deserve immediate options.

The American Federation for Children fights on behalf of these children—and their families—and works to change laws so that low-income families can access the best schools for their children.

We believe that parents should have a range of options, including great public schools, public charter schools, and access to high-quality private schools through school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs.  Educational excellence has nothing to do with the label on the front of the school.  That's why it is about a fundamental right for parents to have access to whichever quality schools serve their kids best.

There is a real need for school choice in America:

• More than 5 million children are trapped in 10,000 chronically underperforming schools.
• An estimated 1.2 million students failed to graduate from high school in 2008. That is nearly 7,000 dropouts a day or one dropout every 26 seconds.
• Nearly 50 percent of children in our nation’s largest cities do not graduate from high school.
• American 15-year-olds scored below average in science when compared to students in 29 other countries. In math, our students are outperformed by their peers in 23 other countries.

Despite the best efforts of educators, special interests have prevented real reform. It’s time for bold action. It’s time to empower families with real school choice.