Real Families. Real Impact.
School Choice Changed Everything for This Military Family
For military families, sacrifice is constant. School choice and the Education Freedom Tax Credit can make sure their children still have access to the education they deserve.
Carol Day is an active duty military spouse. She will be the first to tell you that the tradeoffs military life requires are worth it.
The adventure. The resilience. The pride of supporting her husband’s service to the United States. Carol and her daughter Savannah have moved, adapted, and made a home wherever the military has sent them.
But every move comes with a cost most people never see. For families already stretched thin, finding the right school through school choice can feel just out of reach.
What Military Families Give Up When They Give So Much
When a military family relocates, the losses stack up quickly.
“Every time we move, we lose a house with a good interest rate. We lose a good school. We lose a good paying job,” Carol explains.
The financial math is relentless. Her husband’s income covers the bills. Carol’s income, whatever she can piece together after each relocation, goes toward groceries. Not tuition. Not savings. Groceries.
“And what is there for Savannah and tuition?” she asks. “Not much.”
This is the reality that rarely makes it into conversations about military service. The servicemember’s sacrifice is visible. The family’s sacrifice, repeated move after move, year after year, is often invisible.
For Savannah, the stakes were her education. And without school choice options, they would have had nowhere else to turn.
Preparing Students for More Than Graduation
Carol had been living in her current community for three years before she ever heard about the tax credit scholarship program. It wasn’t until buyers she worked with mentioned it in passing that she stopped and thought: Wait, what is this?
“I had no idea the tax credit existed,” she says. “I’ve been living here three years and hadn’t heard of this.”
It’s a common story. Families who need school choice the most are often the last to learn it exists. By the time Carol applied, the funding window for that year had already closed.
They didn’t receive the scholarship.
This is precisely the gap the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC) is designed to close. By unlocking a new, federal stream of scholarship funding, the EFTC will dramatically expand the pool of dollars available to families like Carol’s, so that more children like Savannah can access the school that’s right for them without missing a narrow funding window or depending on timing they can’t control.
Community Stepped In, But Families Shouldn't Have to Hope for That
What happened next is a reminder of why schools rooted in faith and community are different.
A school administrator, Mr. Martin, made sure the family didn’t fall through the cracks. He connected Carol and Savannah with the parish and the archdiocese, who together covered Savannah’s first semester.
This spring, the family is paying out of pocket.
Carol isn’t complaining. She’s determined.
“What I see in this school is a family, a very faith-based family. And I am not going to give that up for Savannah.”
That determination is admirable. But no family, especially one already serving and sacrificing for this country, should have to depend on charity and goodwill to keep their child in the right school. School choice works best when funding is reliable, accessible, and sufficient. That is the promise behind the Education Freedom Tax Credit.
More Than a School: A Foundation for Family
For families constantly uprooted by military life, stability is not something to take for granted. Roots are hard to put down when orders can move you in a matter of weeks.
That’s what makes finding the right school, one that feels like a family, so significant for Carol.
“The tax credit gives us that opportunity to be here in a small town and focus on building a family,” she says.
That is exactly what school choice is designed to do. Not just provide an academic option. Not just route a child to the nearest building. But give families, including families who have already given so much, the ability to choose a community that aligns with their values and their faith.
Savannah is resilient. Carol says so herself. Military kids often are.
But resilience shouldn’t have to mean settling for whatever is left over after every sacrifice has already been made.
The tax credit gives us that opportunity to be here in a small town and focus on building a family
– Carol Day
How the Education Freedom Tax Credit Expands School Choice for Families Like Savannah's
- Expand scholarship funding available to students seeking private school options through school choice
- Increase the number of families who can access scholarships before funding runs out
- Reduce financial barriers that prevent military families and other working parents from choosing a school that meets the needs of their child
For a family like Carol’s, one living on a tight budget, moving frequently, and paying out of pocket this semester, additional scholarship dollars through the Education Freedom Tax Credit could be the difference between staying at the school that has become their family’s anchor and losing it at the next set of orders. Children like Savannah deserve better than a funding lottery. The Education Freedom Tax Credit is how we get there.
Every Family Who Serves Deserves the Freedom to Choose
School choice is about more than academics. It’s about giving every family, regardless of income, zip code, or how many times the military has moved them, the ability to find a school that sees their child as a whole person and invests in their future.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit will help make that possible for thousands more families starting in 2027.
Because families like Carol’s shouldn’t have to depend on luck or generosity to keep Savannah in the school that changed everything.
Every family who serves this country deserves the freedom to choose.
Sign up to learn more about the Education Freedom Tax Credit and how it can expand school choice scholarship funding for families like Savannah’s starting in 2027.
Get notified when the Education Freedom Tax Credit launches so you don’t miss the opportunity to support K–12 students while benefiting from a federal tax credit.
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School Choice Changed Everything for This Military Family
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