#73 TOMMY SCHULTZ: US EDUCATION IS IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY

"We are in an undeclared state of emergency in US education." Welcome Tommy Shultz, the CEO for American Federation for Children. The AFC is the largest school choice advocacy group in the USA. Their mission is to bring better educational opportunities to mainly low income families by changing laws and becoming political aggressive so these children can escape the generational poverty and crime they are doomed into. The country currently employs a severely outdated educational system with pedagogies do not support educating children equally. Children born in less privileged counties or zip codes are right away put into a public school system with no resources or attention to individual needs. School choice, aka the AFC, are educating parents and creating more pathways where they can access state allocated money to help them offer children homeschooling, private school, private tutoring, relocating to a different school, commuter options ect. ⁠Forbes⁠ just commented in 2025 that, "The gloom overshadowing K-12 schools begins with declining test scores." We just saw the National Assessment of Educational Progress release, "Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics." Tune into this powerful conversation! We hope it encourages parents to turn their attention towards AFC's efforts, school choice in your state and to become active in this conversation.