Last week, Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) hosted an event in Palm Beach, Florida at the home of CSF Board Member Remy Trafelet and his wife, Missy.
Remy kicked off the event by telling the story of his involvement with CSF and how, from a business perspective, he realized his philanthropic dollars would go a lot further supporting CSF, helping children access a better education for a fraction of what charter and public schools spend. Remy also spoke about the new federal education freedom tax credit taking effective in 2027, which will provide any taxpayer who contributes to an approved scholarship organization like CSF a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for gifts up to $1,700. CSF President and CEO Darla Romfo shared the vision John Walton and Ted Forstmann had when they founded the organization in 1998, and how that vision is being fulfilled through the expansion of education freedom and the lives of more than 224,000 children who have been helped by CSF scholarships since its inception. The federal education freedom tax credit has the capacity to take the original CSF vision to a new level, opening up opportunities to award larger, more meaningful scholarships that will empower even more families and children.
Author and educator Ian Rowe spoke about his work both in public policy and putting ideas into practice at Vertex Partnership Academies, the Bronx charter high school he co-founded. One of the key concepts imparted to Vertex students is the Success Sequence, in which a young person “finishes at least their high school degree, then gets a full-time job of any kind, so they learn the dignity and discipline of work. And then if they have children, they get married first. The data says 97% of kids who follow that series of decisions in that order avoid poverty.” Ian noted that in addition to helping more families access private school, the federal tax credit would benefit students at his public charter school, providing funds for tutoring, SAT prep, and other educational expenses. You can learn more about Vertex Partnership Academies here.
Florida scholarship alumna Denisha Allen shared her own success story, detailing how being awarded a scholarship in sixth grade changed her trajectory completely, leading to her work as a school choice advocate and founder of Black Minds Matter. After years of struggling in schools where she didn’t get the attention she needed, Denisha was placed by her godmother in a private, faith-based school where she finally blossomed and flourished. As Denisha shared, “I became the first in my family to graduate from high school. I went on to get my undergraduate degree, got my master’s degree, and made it a point to figure out how can I make sure that another kid doesn’t experience the same thing that I experienced.”
To learn more about CSF and the federal education freedom tax credit, please visit CSF’s website, where you can sign up to receive tax credit updates as new information becomes available.
