Tommy Schultz is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Federation for Children (AFC), the nation’s largest K–12 school choice advocacy organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
AFC has invested more than $350 million nationwide to advance school choice, contributing to the passage of more than 250 school choice laws across 30+ states that expanded educational access for millions of families, particularly lower-income families for whom school choice can be transformative.
Tommy joined AFC in January 2015 and rose through every level of the organization — from Tennessee Communications Director to National Communications Director to VP of Communications and Marketing — before being appointed CEO in June 2021.
In his time at AFC, Tommy has been the organization’s primary public voice during the most prolific era of school choice lawmaking in American history. During his time as CEO, AFC has raised and deployed $179 million across half of the country. During that time, private school choice program enrollment grew from 540,000 to 1.6 million today.
Under his leadership, AFC supported landmark private school choice program victories in dozens of states, while simultaneously building the national infrastructure for the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), the first federal school choice tax credit in U.S. history, effective January 1, 2027.
Before joining AFC, Tommy was a spokesman for presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional campaigns in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Tennessee. In between campaign cycles, Tommy had stints with leading public affairs firms in the D.C. area.
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