Invest in a Student, Invest in Texas
CALENDAR
What If the Money You Already Pay Could Build the Next Generation of Texas?
Every year, Texas collects billions in lottery revenue and sin taxes. Every year, that money flows to Austin — and the student sitting in a struggling school district in your county sees almost none of it. Jack Daniel Foster Jr. has a plan to change that. Not with a new tax. Not with a new bureaucracy. With a direct line between a taxpayer who believes in a young Texan — and the student who needs someone to believe in them.
THE HONEST TRUTH ABOUT TEXAS EDUCATION FUNDING
Texas Collects Billions for Education. Your Community's Kids Still Struggle.
Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed over $36 billion to the Foundation School Fund. Yet lottery revenue represents just 3% of total education funding — while 75 cents of every lottery dollar is spent on administration, advertising, and prize payouts before a single cent reaches a classroom.
Meanwhile:
Pandemic-induced learning gaps remain a documented reality — Texas 8th graders saw declines in both reading and math in the most recent NAEP assessment
Texas has a comparatively high share of prime-age adults without a high school diploma, and a below-average share of residents with advanced degrees
Adults with some college or higher earn $23,000+ more annually than those with only a high school diploma or less
The gap between what Texas collects and what Texas students actually receive is not a funding problem. It is a routing problem. The money exists. It just doesn’t reach the people it was promised to.
The Book
THE BOOK SPEAKS
“The Academic-Skills Fund is designed to address the three determinants of life — education, healthcare, and retirement — beginning with the earliest investment: a child’s academic foundation.”
— Jack Daniel Foster Jr., The Message
WHAT THE ACADEMIC-SKILLS FUND IS
An After-School, Weekend, and Summer Investment Engine — Powered by You.
The Investor Chooses a Student
A homeowner or landowner selects up to 3 young Texans to invest in. These students receive funded tutoring, academic support, skills enrichment, and personal mentoring — after school, on weekends, and during summers.
The ISD Runs the Program
Every participating ISD receives Academic-Skills Fund resources to deploy accredited after-school and weekend programs. No stand-alone centers — every program must be affiliated with an ISD.
Funding Comes From Where It Was Always Promised
Under The Big Deal Legislation, 30% of the lottery tax and 100% of the sin tax are redirected directly to ISDs to fund the Academic-Skills Fund statewide. Texas school funding for 2025 is expected to exceed $66 billion — yet rural and low-income county districts are starved of resources. The Academic-Skills Fund puts money where the students actually are.
Success Is Rewarded. The Investor Gets Paid
8% return for disadvantaged students. 5% for advantaged. 3% guaranteed risk-free if the student does not complete. You never lose your investment. You always earn a return. And if everything works — a young Texan’s life is changed.
THE THREE DETERMINANTS OF LIFE
Education: Not just a diploma — the academic foundation that allows a young person to pursue a trade, a certification, a degree, or a career. The Academic-Skills Fund fills the hours that school cannot — after the bell rings, on Saturday mornings, during the summers that too many kids spend with no structure and no path forward.
Healthcare: A student who understands their body, their benefits, and how to navigate the healthcare system becomes an adult who doesn’t end up in an emergency room for conditions preventive care would have caught. The investor’s mentorship includes healthcare literacy.
Retirement: A young Texan who starts their working life with a credential, a mentor, and an understanding of how money works is a young Texan who can save, invest, and build toward retirement — rather than working until they can’t.
“We must address the whole person — not just the test score.”
— Jack Daniel Foster Jr., The Message
WHO THIS REACHES: THE QUINTET
The Wealthy Student: Whose family’s stability depends on a Texas economy strong enough to sustain their business, property value, and future workforce. When their county thrives, they thrive.
The Middle-Class Student: Treading water in a household where both parents work, where tutoring is unaffordable, and where academic help after school simply doesn’t exist. One investor changes everything.
The Marginalized Student: Born into a county where poverty has concentrated for generations. Has enormous potential. Has no one with resources who has ever been financially incentivized to invest in their future. Until now.
The Child: Every child in Texas. No exceptions. The Academic-Skills Fund does not discriminate by background, zip code, race, or socioeconomic status.
The Immigrant Student: Texas has one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation. These students and families contribute to the Texas tax base and deserve the same academic pathway as every other Texan.
THE WISDOM LAYER
A Credential Prepares You for a Job. A Mentor Prepares You for Life.
What separates the Academic-Skills Fund from every other after-school program is the mentorship obligation built into the investor relationship. The investor is not writing a check and walking away. Life guidance topics the investor is expected to cover:
How health insurance works — and why it matters
How to open and maintain a bank account
How to budget for a first apartment
What a 401(k) is and why starting at 20 changes everything
How to handle a job offer, a conflict at work, a raise negotiation
What credit is, how it works, and how to build it young
“Community colleges are great institutions of learning — but they do not teach wisdom. Wisdom is passed from person to person, in community, through relationship.”
— Jack Daniel Foster Jr., The Message
THE FUNDING MATH
Texas Already Has the Money. It Just Needs Better Instructions.
CURRENT SYSTEM • Texas Lottery generates ~$8B/year in sales • ~24% goes to the Foundation School Fund • ~$2B to education total — just 3% of overall education budget • 75% of lottery revenue goes to prizes, admin, and advertising • Rural and low-income counties receive proportionally almost nothing • The promise of ‘lottery money for education’ has never matched reality | THE BIG DEAL SYSTEM • 30% of lottery tax redirected directly to ISDs • 100% of sin tax (alcohol + tobacco) redirected directly to ISDs • Revenue flows to Academic-Skills Fund at the county level • ISDs deploy funds through accredited after-school and weekend programs • Individual taxpayers supplement with direct investment and earn guaranteed return • The routing changes. The promise is finally kept. |
THE COMPOUND EFFECT
One Investment. One Student. One County. Multiplied 254 Times.
One taxpayer in Hansford County invests in three students. Those students build academic foundations strong enough to enter the Skills Fund and pursue a certified trade. Those tradespeople earn higher wages, pay more in taxes, and stay in Hansford County. The county’s tax base grows. Property values stabilize. New businesses have a trained local workforce to hire from. The cycle of Dismal Infinity begins to break. Then it happens in Bowie County. And Presidio County. And Cameron County. And all 254 counties in Texas.
“We will not solve state problems from Austin. We will solve them from every community in this state — one investment at a time.”
— Jack Daniel Foster Jr., The Message
ABOUT JACK DANIEL
Jack Daniel Foster Jr. is not a career politician. He is not a policy analyst funded by a foundation. He is a common man from Texas who watched his state collect billions in the name of its people — and watched those people get less and less in return. He spent years studying the system, identifying the gaps, and writing The Message — a comprehensive blueprint for how Texas could use the resources it already has to build a future that actually reaches every community, every student, and every family. He is running for Governor not to take power — but to return it to the people who have been paying for it all along.
What I Stand For!
- Political Transparency
- Voter Awareness
- Community Engagement- Incentives, i.e., Compensation
- Combating Corruption
- Homeowners, Landowners, and Buy-in Citizens, instead of bureaucracy
- Academic Skills Fund & County Skills Fund
- Rank Choice Voting (RCV)
- Combating Corruption