The MY (Mine&Your) Plan
A Community-Owned Vision for Educational Funding Reform
“If you want to do something for me, do something for my child.”
— Frances Naomi Vaughn
Executive Summary
America’s educational system has long been in a steadily growing financial crisis. Public schools across the country struggle daily to provide students and teachers with the resources they need, while families continue to shoulder an overwhelming burden of college tuition debt.
Today, student loan debt in the United States exceeds $1.7 trillion.
The MY (Mine & Your) Plan is a proposed community-based retail funding model designed to generate long-term educational funding without increasing taxes or requiring direct financial donations from American families or from corporations.
The concept is simple:
Community-owned retail stores would return 100% of store profits directly into individual education accounts that families would use to support educational needs such as:
Co-funding K–12 school needs not met by tax dolar funding
Funding future personal or child’s college tuition
Existing or outstanding student loan repayments
School nutrition programs
Teacher support and classroom resources
School safety initiatives
Student mental health services
Rather than relying solely on tax revenue or charitable donations, the MY Plan seeks to redirect the economic power of everyday consumer spending into a perpetual funding source for education.
The MY design envisions partnerships with current education philanthropists, (that donated over 68 billion dollars last year to education) communities, and corporate leaders to establish a nationwide network of community-owned retail stores where 100% of the store profits would directly benefit students and families.
The goal is not temporary relief, but the creation of a permanent educational funding engine that empowers communities and expands opportunity for every child, no matter the parents income.
In other words, we would all now own the lemonade stand.
For more than 40 years, the Good Idee Group (GIG) has worked with organizations around the world to solve difficult problems—often problems others believed had no solution.
Today, we believe America faces one of those challenges in education.
Across the nation, schools struggle daily to provide the resources students need to succeed. Teachers purchase classroom supplies from their own pockets. Mental health services remain underfunded. School safety improvements are expensive. Millions of children face food insecurity. Meanwhile, Americans collectively carry more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.
For decades, communities have searched for a permanent solution. We believe one now exists.
After 16 years of development, the Good Idee Group presents The MY Plan—short for Mine & Yours.
Why the Current System Is Failing
America’s educational funding system relies heavily on property taxes, a model established nearly 200 years ago. That system increasingly disadvantages lower-income communities because schools located in economically struggling areas generate less local tax revenue.
The result is predictable:
fewer educational resources,
lower teacher retention,
reduced opportunities,
and diminished hope for future generations.
Communities with the greatest need often receive the least support.
This inequality is visible in schools across America.
May I show you an example of such a school in our supposed 2026 age of technological advancement?
Mr. Henry Darby
Meet Henry-
In North Charleston, South Carolina, after spending full days leading his school, Principal Henry Darby goes in and works the graveyard shift at his local Walmart. He then uses this small, additional income to help feed students. He also tries to spread some around to support teachers who cannot afford classroom supplies.
Henry’s story is both inspiring and heartbreaking.
When educators must work second jobs to provide basic necessities for students, it reveals a deeper structural problem—not a lack of compassion, but a lack of sustainable funding.
The question is not whether people care. As can be seen, Americans clearly do.
How can we tell?
Because every year:
philanthropists donate billions to education,
parents and their surrounding community come out of the woodwork to financially support school fundraisers,
teachers sacrifice personal income,
The problem is that these efforts, while admirable, are temporary and fragmented. They do not create a permanent funding engine capable of supporting every school, every child, and every community.What you are about to discover though, is the solution that will.
The Core Idea Behind The MY Plan
Americans spend trillions of dollars annually on everyday consumer goods:
groceries,
household supplies,
clothing,
personal essentials,
and other necessities.
The MY Plan proposes redirecting 100% of the profits generated from these purchases, back into education.
How It Would Work
Imagine a nationwide network of community-owned retail stores called MY Stores.
These stores would operate similarly to major retail chains, offering everyday products families already purchase regularly. However, unlike traditional retailers, the profits generated by MY Stores would not enrich private shareholders.
Instead, 100% of those profits would flow back into educational funding accounts tied to participating families and communities.
Each customer would accumulate education credits through their purchases, which could then support:
K–12 public schools,
private school tuition,
college tuition savings,
student loan repayment,
teacher salaries,
school nutrition programs,
mental health services,
and school safety initiatives.
In short, families would continue buying the products they already need—but the profits generated from those purchases would directly support educational causes, as each family so chooses.
All families would then, in effect, become “self-philanthropists.”
How does self-philanthropy sound?
Addressing Educational Inequality
The MY Plan is especially designed to help underserved communities that have historically lacked educational opportunity.
Many people assume that students from low-income or minority communities automatically receive a free college education. In reality, they do not. For many children growing up in deeply impoverished environments, even imagining college can feel impossible—let alone taking on tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.
Like Principal Henry Darby once asked:
“How many of these kids in my community do you think have someone in their family who can positively mentor them on the importance of a high school education, much less a college education?”
His answer was sobering:
“Very few. It’s as foreign to them as filet mignon.”
Many low-income families want desperately to support their children’s education but lack the financial means to do so. The MY Plan seeks to empower those families rather than position them as passive recipients of aid.
By allowing educational funding to grow through ordinary household purchases, the plan creates a pathway for every family to contribute directly to their children’s future.
This is not charity.
It is participation.
You are hearing what empowerment looks like at it’s finest.
A Different Kind of Philanthropy
Since educational philanthropists already donate billions of dollars each year attempting to improve schools and reduce tuition burdens, the MY Plan proposes using this philanthropic investment differently—not simply funding individual schools temporarily, but helping establish a permanent, self-sustaining educational infrastructure.
Under this model, philanthropic investment could:
launch MY Stores quickly coast-to-coast by acquiring existing retail infrastructure,
modernize operations,
and help communities transition into long-term educational ownership.
Instead of repeatedly “bailing water” by funding symptoms, the goal would be to “fix the leak” by building a system capable of perpetually generating educational resources for future generations.
The MY Plan “fixes the leak.”
The Long-Term Vision
Imagine a child whose parents begin shopping through the MY system shortly after birth.
Over the course of 18 years, a portion of those family purchases could accumulate toward:
college tuition,
educational savings,
or other approved educational expenses.
By the time that student graduates high school, much—or potentially all—of their tuition costs could already be covered through years of ordinary consumer activity.
At scale, the implications are enormous:
reduced student debt,
stronger schools,
better teacher retention,
improved child nutrition,
expanded mental health services,
and safer learning environments.
Why We Believe This Can Work
Americans already possess tremendous economic power through collective spending. The MY Plan simply asks a new question:
What if the profits generated from our daily purchases worked for our children instead of only for corporations?
That idea sits at the heart of this proposal.
The MY Plan is intentionally:
nonpartisan,
culturally inclusive,
economically scalable,
and community-centered.
It is not built around politics. It is built around participation.
“I help support your child’s future, and you help support mine.”
The Economic Potential
The financial implications are significant.
The concept reframes consumer spending as a collective educational investment.
It also raises broader possibilities, including whether stronger supplemental educational funding could eventually reduce pressure on local property taxes.
A Call to Action
The Good Idee Group believes the resources necessary to transform educational funding already exist within the scale of America’s economy and collective spending power.
What has been missing is a framework capable of channeling that power back into education in a permanent and sustainable way.
The MY Plan is offered as that framework.
The goal now is simple:
begin conversations,
reach philanthropic leaders,
engage communities,
and explore whether this concept can evolve into reality.
What is your resource that you can contribute to MY?
I can promise you this…You have one.
“Find good, or create it.” — The Good Idee Group
