Hey guys. We wanna start this episode by telling you something honest about ourselves. If you haven't noticed, we are black. We are faith-based. We grew up in communities where the public school was the center of the neighborhood, where the teachers knew our grandparents, where the principal went to your church. Where the building itself was a symbol of what the community had fought for and built together. And we are genuinely excited about Tifa. We say that knowing full well that for some people in our community, these two things feel like they cannot be true at the same time. The excitement about school choice means you don't care about public schools. That wanting options means you've given up on the system that taking state money is not at best and a trap at worse. Personally, we don't believe any of that. And we don't think you have to believe it either to take this conversation seriously. What we believe is that black families in Texas deserve the same access to complete honest information about this program as every other family. And they deserve to hear it from people who understand what is actually at stake for them specifically. So this episode is that conversation, the one we are having at our own kitchen table. The one we think a lot of black Texas families need to have and haven't had the space to have yet. We are not going to tell you what to decide. We are going to make sure you have everything you need to decide for yourself. To understand why this conversation is complicated for black families in a way that it is not for every other community. You have to hold two pieces of history at the same time. The first piece is this. Black families in America have been fighting for access to quality education for as long as there has been a Black America. And the public school at its best has been one of the primary mechanisms through which that access was won and protected. Brown versus Board of Education was not a fight about school choice. It was a fight for the right to access the same public institutions that were being used to maintain inequality. The public school for the black community. Has a meaning that goes beyond academics. It is tied to civil rights, to community, to the hard won belief that we belong in every room that exists. The second piece is equally true. That same public school system has also failed black children at a disproportionate rate for generations, underfunded schools in black neighborhoods, lower expectations from teachers, discipline disparities, special education over identification. And under identification happening simultaneously. The public school system at its worst, has not been a great equalizer for black children. Both of those things are true. And any conversation about school choice in the black community that doesn't honor both of them is not having the full conversation. This is the tension. We want every dollar that could strengthen our children's education. We also do not want to be part of a movement that drains resources from the schools that serve the majority of black children in this state who will not be in the Tifa lottery. That is not a simple tension. It is a real one, and it deserves to be named out loud. There's also a faith piece to this, right? The black church has been the backbone. Of alternative education in the black community for over a century. Black church schools, faith-based academies, freedom schools, the tradition of the black community, educating its own children in its own institutions on its own terms. According to its own values is not new. Tifa puts state money behind what the community has often been doing on faith alone, and that is a different thing than many people are acknowledging. Let's talk about what is actually in this program for black and brown Texas families because beyond the politics. There are real dollar amounts and real opportunities that deserve to be understood Clearly, The priority system matters for this community. a's lottery prioritization is structured in a way that is meaningfully favorable to lower income families. And families with children who have disabilities. Tier one, the highest priority is children with a qualifying disability in households at or below 500% of the federal poverty level. Tier two is households at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, which is approximately. $66,000 for a family of four. Those two tiers represent a significant portion of black Texas families. The program's priority structure was designed to serve families with the greatest financial need first. That is worth understanding and there is a disability funding pathway. We've talked about this in episode three of this series, but it deserves emphasis here. Black children are disproportionately identified with certain disabilities in the public school system, and simultaneously black families often have less access to the private, therapeutic, and educational services that support those children. TE a's disability pathway, which can provide up to $30,000 per child for a student with a qualifying disability. Attending an accredited private school creates a funding bridge for services that black families with a child who has special needs, have historically had to fight for or pay for out of pocket. That is real. The faith-based school connection. The majority of TFA participating private schools in Texas are faith-based, and many of those schools are the very institutions that black churches and faith communities have built and sustained for decades. TFA is in a very real sense sending state money to black faith-based institutions. That have been educating black children without state support for generations. If your child attends or could attend a black church affiliated school, a historically black Christian academy, or any other faith-based school that has joined the TFA program, this money flows to that institution. That's not a small thing. Now there is a homeschool pathway for faith-based families who are homeschooling because they want their child's education grounded in their faith and free from curriculum they did not choose. The homeschool pathway provides $2,000 per child for curriculum tutoring and educational therapies and critically. Tifa does not tell you what to teach. The program governs what you can spend money on. It does not govern how you educate your child, your faith-based curriculum, your values, your worldview. Those are yours. The state is funding the education, not directing it. And here's a key fact. TPAs. Eligible expense categories determine what you can buy with the money they do not determine what you teach, what worldview you teach from, or what your child learns. The distinction between funding, education and controlling it is real and it matters. Now we wanna speak directly to the concerns that a lot of black families are carrying into this conversation because they're legitimate and they deserve real engagement rather than dismissal. Concern number one, does tifa drain money from public schools that serve black children? This is the concern we hear most often and take most seriously, and the honest answer is it depends on how the program scales and how the state responds over time. In year one. Tifa is funded from a $1 billion legislative. Appropriation meaning the money was specifically allocated for this program. It does not come directly out of the existing per student funding formula for public schools. However, the long-term relationship between ESA programs and public school funding. Is a legitimate policy question that researchers and legislators are actively debating across the country. The concern that as more families leave public schools, the political will to fund those schools robustly may diminish over time. That is not a conspiracy theory. This is a reasonable concern about how political priorities shift we hold that concern too. What we also hold is this, the families most likely to be left in underfunded public schools are the families who have no other option, which is one reason why we believe black families who do have options should be fully informed and free to exercise them without guilt, which is one reason why we believe black families who do have options should be fully informed and free to exercise them without guilt, while also staying engaged in the fight for well-funded public schools. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. You can take care of your child and fight for someone else's child at the same time. Now, let's get real. Taking Tifa does not make you a traitor to the community. Staying in a system that is failing your child does not make you a community hero. The most powerful thing you can do is make the best decision for your family while remaining a voice for every family who doesn't have the same choice that you do. Concern number two, will the government eventually control what we teach in faith-based settings? This is the concern that keeps faith-based families up at night, and it deserves a direct answer. In the current program, TIFA does not impose curriculum requirements on homeschool families or on private schools beyond what is required for accreditation. The program governs spending. It is not governed teaching. The legitimate version of this concern is about trajectory not current rules. History gives us reason to be thoughtful. Federal funding programs have in the past come with strings that were not visible in year one. The faith community's weariness about accepting government money is rooted in real experience, not paranoia. Our view is this. The families who participate in year one, who use the program well, who document their outcomes, who stay engaged with their elected officials and who make their voices heard in the process, are the families who will help determine what Year five looks like. Opting out entirely means the program's trajectory is shaped entirely by families whose values and priorities may not reflect yours. Participation with Eyes Open is different from naive acceptance. The faith community's leverage. Black churches and faith-based institutions that participate in Tifa become stakeholders in how the program evolves. Stakeholders have standing, they have relationships with administrators. They have the moral authority that comes from being in the room. That is not nothing that is power. Concern number three. Is this program really for us or will we get left out of the lottery? Look at the priority tiers. Tier one is families with a child with a disability, at or below 500% of the federal poverty level. Tier two is families at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Black Texas families are represented significantly in both of those tiers. The program structure is not designed to shut us out. Whether it delivers on that structure in practice, that is something year one will reveal. But the framework as written is not working against this community. What could work against any community is not applying. If black families in Texas don't apply because they are uncertain, because they haven't heard about the program, because they don't trust it. The lottery reflects who applied, not who is eligible, and the families. And the families who would have benefited most end up with nothing while others take the funding. That outcome would be a real loss. But we wanna take a step back from the program details for a moment and talk about something bigger. Because this episode is not just about tfa. It is about what black families in Texas are building right now with whatever tools are available. Every generation of black families has had to navigate a moment where the landscape shifted in ways that were complicated, imperfect, and full of both opportunity and risk. The generation that integrated public schools did not know exactly how that would go. The generation that built HBCUs and black independent schools did not know exactly how that would go. They moved forward anyway because they understood that waiting for a perfect moment means your children wait with you. TFA is an imperfect moment. The program has real promise and real questions. The funding is real and the strings are real. The opportunity for faith-based schools is real. And the risk of long-term dependency on state money is real. We are not pretending otherwise. But we're also not waiting. We are applying. We are using this funding for what our family needs. We are staying engaged in the conversation about where this program goes. We are continuing to vote for well-funded public schools because we believe every child in Texas deserves an excellent education regardless of what their family chooses. And we are showing up as parents who are informed, involved, and impossible to ignore because here's what we know to be true about the black community's relationship with every major institution in this country. We have never been served well by sitting outside the conversation and watching. We have always done better when we are at the table informed, prepared, clear-eyed about risk. And unafraid to push back when something is not right. Tifa is a table. We are sitting down at it, not because we trust it completely, not because we think it answers every question, but because our children deserve for us to show up fully in every space where decisions are being made about their futures, what we believe. You can take TFA funding and fight for public schools. You can enroll in a faith-based school and question what government involvement might mean down the road. You can be grateful for an opportunity and honest about its risks. At the same time, that is not contradiction, that is wisdom, and it is a very black way of navigating a complicated world. Now let's close with action because everything we've talked about today is only useful if it moves people forward. Step one, apply. If you are a black Texas family with an eligible child and you have not applied, apply, the application window runs through March 17th. It takes 10 to 20 minutes. It is not a commitment. It's an option. You can be selected and decide not to participate, but you cannot be selected if you don't apply. Do not let uncertainty cost your family an opportunity. Step two, tell your church. Tell your co-op. Tell the parent group. Tell the family at the next cookout. The black community loses ground in programs like this, not because the program excluded us, but because the information didn't reach us in time. You listening to this episode, you listening to this episode right now are part of changing that. Share it. Step three, if your child's school is a faith-based institution. That is not yet registered with tfa. Bring this to your pastor, your principal, your school board. Ask them to look into registering the community's faith. Institutions should be benefiting from this funding, not watching from the outside, while other schools collected. Step four, stay engaged beyond the application. Follow the program's development. When the participant handbook comes out, read it. When the program proposes rule changes, pay attention when your elected officials are voting on education funding. Make your voice heard. Tifa is year one of what may be a long story. The community that shapes its future is the community that stays present through the whole story. And step five. Hold both things at once. Hold the excitement about what this program makes possible for your family, and hold the responsibility to the broader community that does not yet have what you have. Those two things together, personal action and community conscious are the most powerful combination of black parent in Texas can bring to this moment. If you've been with us from the beginning, you know that we started this series trying to answer all the questions you may have, including a complete guide, and then going into how do Texas families spend every dollar of their teeth of money without leaving anything on the table. What we ended up building is something a little bigger than that. We built a resource for families navigating the largest school choice program in American history. We built an honest guide for families with children with disabilities. We built a framework for families trying to choose the right school. We built a decision tool for families who weren't sure. We built a visionary conversation about where education is going. And today we had the conversation that was closest to our own hearts. We did all of that without taking a side. Not because we don't have views, we do, but because we believe that the most valuable thing we can offer any parent is not our opinion. It is the information and the framework they need to arrive at their own. This program is here. The money is real. The questions are real. The journey is just beginning and wherever it leads, whatever battles come, whatever changes happen, whatever year two looks like, we will be here doing this for your family and for ours. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for trusting us to be part of this with you. Now go apply. Go tell somebody and come back because the story is not finished.