AAA Scholarship Foundation is built on empowering economically-disadvantaged children to access the educational opportunities that may otherwise be out of their reach. We are a strong organization because our scholarships strive for equity, are inclusive, and because we exist to serve a diverse group of families and children.

It breaks our hearts that so many children and their family members are the targets of anti-black racism. Racism has no place in America – or anywhere. It destroys lives. It steals opportunities. Ultimately, it weakens the bonds of our nation and breaks the very fabric that should be holding us together.

We stand with the Black community to condemn racism in its every form and manifestation. We support the act of peacefully protesting against oppression, injustice, and brutality. We commit to continue the hard work of breaking down the barriers to the educational opportunities that so many Black and Brown children face daily.

We believe in the American dream for EVERYONE and that a high-quality education is the surest means to achieving it. We pledge to re-double our efforts to help make that dream come true for all of the children that we serve.

HOT OFF THE PRESS! The City of Miami is the first city in the nation to establish a program to assist families with rent and utility assistance. The city is establishing a website and application process which will begin on May 4^th, 2020.

Video in English: https://youtu.be/80hHOku0dpE?t=847

Video in Spanish here: https://youtu.be/80hHOku0dpE?t=1092

Rental / Utility Assistance Program:

• Residents with 60% or below of area median income can apply.
• Up to $1,500 and the funds will be paid directly to landlord and/or utility company.
• Funds will be ready by mid-May to still be able to pay the May rent before late fees are incurred.

Micro Small Business Loans:

• Micro and Small Business loans also starting soon, special meeting next week to approve.
• Call 305-416-2080 or email CommunityDevelopment@MiamiGov.com

Grant Program for Business with 5 Employees or Less:

• Businesses with 5 employees or less can receive a grant up to $10,000 – to cover rent and other costs.  (Business must have not received PPP funds).

Small Business Loan:

Small Business loan that is potentially forgivable, if one job is created, pays for costs not included in the PPP and supplemental to the PPP.  Up to $20,000 loan is forgivable is a job is created.

AAA Scholarship Foundation is grateful to be able to continue its work to benefit low-income students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To provide students and their families some peace of mind while ensuring that every school receives payment for educational services rendered, we are temporary amending AAA’s Scholarship Check Cashing Policies as follows:

1) The requirement that scholarship checks remain on school premises is relaxed temporarily. Instead, we ask that these checks simply stay in the custody of a school representative. That means that if a school representative is dropping off and picking up packets of school work to/from students, they may bring the checks with them for the Parent/Guardian to endorse the check over to the school. Schools should stamp the back of each check with their school’s “For Deposit Only by [school name]” bank stamp before removing them from school premises.

Just a reminder that these checks are payments from the Parents/Guardians to their child(ren)’s school for services rendered. Only the Parent/Guardian named on the check may endorse it over to the school. Please contact us at 888-707-2465 or info @ aaascholarships.org if you have any questions or concerns.

We at AAA want to thank all the school teachers, administrators, and staff for their continued service to the AAA Scholars and their families. We wish you all continued good health!

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DON’T LET THE SUN SET ON GEORGIA’S TAX CREDIT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM!

Georgia took a huge step forward for families two years ago and increased the Qualified Education Expense tax credit scholarship program from $58 million to $100 million for the next 10 years. This increase had led to thousands of children having opportunities in new schools that best meet their needs. This year, we’re looking to remove the stepdown of the program cap in future years and keep the program at $100 million. But we need your help.

We are asking parents, schools, and students (creative notes from the kids are best!) to send thank you letters, notes, etc. to their lawmakers in support of the program. You can find your lawmakers by using this site, www.openstates.org, and typing in your address.

Please send your notes and thank you letters by Friday, March 20th to:

GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

c/o REP. JOHN CARSON

STATE CAPITOL, SUITE 401-E

ATLANTA, GA 30334

We’d like to inundate the Capitol with thousands of letters!

Let’s make this a huge effort with cards and letters from Georgia’s kids (the first name only for privacy is fine) and others. Thank you!!

Click here for a pdf of this post.

 

A new study (link), by David N. Figlio, Cassandra M.D. Hart and Krzystof Karbonik, confirms that public school students benefit as choice programs around them scale-up.

This study specifically sought to find out what happened to the students who remained in public schools as others around them participated in scholarship programs that allowed them to attend private schools. It notes that, as of 2019, there were 29 states with either voucher (tuition & fees funded directly by the government) or scholarship (tuition & fee funded by private donations) programs in place.

The researchers focused on the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship Program (disclosure: AAA is an administrator of the FTC program) as it is the largest of its kind in the United States and has a wealth of student-level data (identity-redacted) – both within the FTC program and the Public School system.

The results indicate that public school students living in households with economic-disadvantages and parents with lower education levels were the most positively affected by this exposure, showing lower levels of suspensions and absences, and higher standardized test scores in reading and math. Even those students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were positively affected, just to a lesser degree.

The researchers find many reasons for the results – from higher competitive pressure levels to changes in resources received by the public schools. Ultimately, the fact remains that the benefits of school choice are wide-ranging and help many more students than just those directly participating in the program.

If you’d like to find out more about the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program or any of the other scholarships we administer, we welcome you to contact us!

Tampa, FL – AAA Scholarship Foundation today announced the launch of its first-generation Private School Navigator (www.privateschoolnavigator.org).

“We listened to our stakeholders who voiced a strong interest in making sure that families have the opportunity and information they need to make informed choices about the educational-settings that best fit their children’s learning needs. One way we knew we could meet their expectations was by creating a roadmap to help parents navigate the process of selecting and applying to schools,” said Kim Dyson, president and CEO of AAA Scholarship Foundation.

In order to make the Private School Navigator as effective as possible, AAA sought out subject-matter expert, Andrew Campanella, the author of the award-winning book, The School Choice Roadmap: 7 Steps to Finding the Right School for Your Child and president of National School Choice Week, to help develop the resources that will provide scholarship families with practical tools and information on evaluating schools that best meet the needs of their children. Andrew, a strong proponent of all types of school choice, is providing these efforts in his personal capacity and on a volunteer basis.

“Every child deserves an excellent education, and parents know their children best,” Campanella said. “I am grateful to partner with AAA Scholarship Foundation to provide practical, jargon-free school search information so that all families can find learning environments where their children will learn, succeed, feel welcomed, and be happy.”

Over the next few weeks and months, the Private School Navigator will grow and become even more effective with the addition of the following resources:

–an abridged and easily-digestible handbook based on Andrew’s the award-winning book, The School Choice Roadmap: 7 Steps to Finding the Right School for Your Child

–a “Quick Reference Guide” in English and Spanish that families can carry with them to school visits

–additional short and informative videos for families as they continue their school selection journey

–information about upcoming Private School Navigator information sessions and webinars

“We hope everyone is as excited as we are about this progress and we look forward to continuing to help underserved families who are seeking quality educational options for their children,” Dyson said.

Click here for a pdf of this statement.

Tampa, FL, February 7, 2020 – AAA Scholarship Foundation today announced it would implement
several changes that will enable continued participation by Fifth Third Bank in the Florida Tax
Credit Scholarship Program.

Following a series of in-depth discussions with bank representatives, AAA will adopt new guidelines
that will enhance the information provided to parents and help ensure full transparency as they make
these important educational decisions for their children. AAA also will meet annually with Fifth Third
to evaluate the program and review the impact that the bank’s investment is having on the lives of
scholarship recipients.

“We appreciate the partnership we have had with Fifth Third over the past few years and wanted to
explore ways we could continue to work together to support the educational aspirations of Florida’s
economically disadvantaged and displaced students,” said Kim Dyson, president and CEO of AAA
Scholarship Foundation. “We listened to their concerns and their strong interest in making sure that
parents have the opportunity and information they need to make informed choices about the
educational-settings that best fit their children’s learning needs. One way we can do that is by creating
a roadmap to help parents navigate the process of selecting and applying to schools.”

Dyson said this and other enhancements would start to be implemented immediately and would be
in effect for enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year, paving the way for Fifth Third’s continued
participation in the program.

“We look forward to once again partnering with Fifth Third through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship
Program to help low-income and displaced students gain access to educational options,” Dyson said.

Click here for a pdf of this statement.

According to the most recent study released by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), most LGBTQ secondary school students do not feel safe in Florida’s Public Schools. If you have not had a chance to read it, the full report can be found at this link: School Climate Snap-Shot for Florida Public Schools

That study illustrates why the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship Program is so critical. Since it passed in 2002, it has been one of the only options a low-income family may have to provide their k-12^th grade child who identifies as LGBTQ with an educational setting that is safe and better fits them. In many cases, an FTC scholarship may be the only escape for a low-income LGBTQ child who feels unsafe in their residentially-assigned public school.

We have never spoken to a parent who decided to participate in the FTC Scholarship Program because their child was thriving at their assigned school. They choose this route because their child is suffering academically or experiencing some form of discrimination or bullying. The beauty of the FTC Scholarship program is that it genuinely empowers parents with limited means to remove their children from otherwise harmful environments and into supportive ones where they can thrive.

You can follow this link to our blog post about why We Trust Parents which seeks to remind everyone that this program is 100% voluntary. No one forces a parent to participate or to have their child remain in any school that ends up being a bad fit (unlike residentially-assigned public schools). Parents have to work hard to get an FTC scholarship for their children, and they don’t just turn off their brains once their children get an award. They know that the scholarships are theirs to control – not the schools. If their first choice of a school isn’t a good fit, they know they can take their child – and their scholarship – to a different one. This real market force helps weed-out “bad” schools because ultimately, no one will choose to use their FTC scholarships there.

Companies that choose to participate in the FTC Scholarship Program are funding a student’s scholarship and empowering a low-income parent. They are NOT funding schools. They do NOT approve or accept schools. The scholarship parents choose where to use the scholarships.

Not every school will be a good fit – for the parent, the student, or the school. We wish every first-choice school were a good one but that may not happen for some. Nearly 2,000 Florida schools participate in the FTC Scholarship Program. It may take some work to find the right one but FTC Scholarship parents are not afraid to work hard – they’ve already proven that.

What is not okay is to force a parent to keep their child trapped in an unsafe school because scholarship funding is lacking due to misinformation or bullying tactics. When a company chooses to no longer participate in the FTC Scholarship Program because they have been told repeatedly by the media or on social media or berated publicly by a state legislator that they are funding non-inclusive schools, then they have made a decision based on misinformation or bullying.

Contributions to Scholarship Funding Organizations (SFOs) do not fund schools; they fund scholarships. SFOs award scholarships to students, not to schools. Scholarship checks are made payable to the parents, not to schools. This loss of scholarship funding means a company will be harming the very students they may be trying to help by no longer participating in the FTC Scholarship Program. Those responsible for the misinformation and bullying will have successfully trapped students in unsafe schools.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program transforms the lives of low-income children by empowering parents to choose where their children can achieve their ultimate academic potential regardless of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. We trust Florida Tax Credit Scholarship parents to make the most informed decisions about their children’s education and you should, too.

Here are the three main reasons that AAA charges an application fee, where allowed:

First, processing scholarship applications is very time and labor-intensive due to the strict accountability demanded to properly administer these state-approved scholarships. AAA is a non-profit organization with a small staff and a limited budget. We rely on humans (rather than machines) to process applications. We pay a living wage plus benefits to our employees. The application fees we collect help offset the expenses incurred for processing tens of thousands of applications annually.

Second, we have learned from experience that charging a small, non-refundable, application fee discourages those people who ALREADY KNOW that they will not be awarded a scholarship from applying. How do they already know? Because we are completely transparent when it comes to the eligibility requirements. As noted above, our staff is small so our capacity to process applications timely is limited. Subsequently, spending our limited resources on applications that have zero chance of being approved is wasteful and slows down approvals for those who are actually eligible.

Third, because the application process is time-intensive, we have to encourage everyone who has applied with us to stick with it to the end. Studies have shown that when people have “skin-in-the-game” they show more perseverance toward reaching the goal. Our experience is that applicants are more likely to respond to additional requests for information and/or documentation when they have paid a fee for the chance to be part of that process.

What we hear time and again is that a small application fee for what is very likely to be thousands of dollars in annual k-12 scholarships is well worth the price!