Surprising New Numbers on K-12 Education, and What’s Coming in 2027
IN THE NEWS: A new Gallup poll finds that Americans' satisfaction with K-12 education has hit its lowest point in 27 years of tracking.
Sean Clifford is President of the AFC Scholarship Fund — the national Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) built to deploy the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), the first federal K–12 school choice tax credit in U.S. history, beginning January 1, 2027.
Sean leads the organization’s launch, operations, institutional partnerships, and donor growth strategy as it scales toward serving families across all 50 states.
Sean brings two decades of leadership at the intersection of education, technology, and public policy. Most recently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at The Tikvah Fund a leading Jewish ideas institution, where he directed efforts to advance classical liberal arts education through national programming, partnerships, and institutional investment.
Before Tikvah, Sean founded and served as CEO of Canopy, a technology company designed to help families navigate online content, demonstrating his commitment to building practical, family-centered tools for the digital age.
Sean began his career at Baron Public Affairs, LLC in Washington, D.C., rising to Vice President and advising Fortune 500 companies, major technology platforms, and national nonprofits on federal public affairs strategy. Sean also served as an intern at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (2005–2006).
Sean is a co-founder of the David Fund and the Hadar Jewish Classical Academy, reflecting a lifelong commitment to institution-building in Jewish education and civic life. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Marketing & Operations Management), an MA in Liberal Arts (Great Books) from St. John’s College, and a BA in Political Economy from Williams College.
Featured Articles from Sean
Ashley Didn’t Choose Where She Started. School Choice Let Her Choose Where She Ended Up
Ashley Elliott was a week old when a judge called her grandmother, not with good news, but to ask whether she would adopt a newborn who had been exposed to drugs in the womb. Ashley grew up on the wrong side of a school zoning line in Lakeland, Florida. A teacher named Mrs. Perez, and a scholarship that followed her to a new school, changed where Ashley ended up.
Every Education Freedom Tax Credit Dollar Is Tracked. Here’s the Proof
You donate, and then what? Here is the federally mandated rule that tracks your gift from the moment you give to the day a child walks into a new school.
Find out if you qualify for the Education Freedom Tax Credit
Check now for free
What the $1,700 Education Freedom Tax Credit Is Really Worth
Starting in 2027, most American households will have access to a federal tax break that works differently than the write-offs many taxpayers already know. Here's what actually makes a credit worth more, in real dollars, than a deduction ever could.
A New Era in American Education: What the EFTC Means for Your Family
It's officially a new era in American education.
The Tax Credit That’s Changing How We Think About Education
American test scores have kept sliding even as per-pupil spending has hit an all-time high.
This School Choice Data May Surprise You
Critics call school choice a zero-sum game. They call it a win for the students who leave, a loss for the students who stay. But real-world data tells a different story.
Find out if you qualify for the Education Freedom Tax Credit
Check now for freeBe part of what comes next
Register your interest and we’ll keep you close to the network as giving opens in 2027.