WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are proposing a federal tax credit that would allow donors to fund private school tuition for students nationwide, saying the plan would empower parents to choose schools that best fit their children's needs.
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025, promoted during a House education subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, would essentially create a new tax break for individuals and corporations that make donations toward tuition costs at private and religious schools. The tax credit would also cover donations for instructional materials, tutoring, therapies for students with disabilities, and dual enrollment for private and public school students.
The donations would be made to scholarship granting organizations.
If enacted, the measure would become the first federally sponsored private school voucher program. Nationwide, there are 26 tax credit scholarship programs in 22 states, according to EDChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for private school choice.
The bill would help ensure that students — even those in states without school choice programs — "could access the education they need and deserve," said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.
But Democratic lawmakers at the hearing called the use of taxpayer dollars for private school tuition a "scam" and said it would undermine efforts to improve public schools. They also argued that private schools do not provide the civil rights and disability protections for students that are required of public schools. National enrollment data shows most students attend public school.
"Public schools serve the needs of every child, regardless of background or income," said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., ranking member of the subcommittee. "That's why we need to protect public education and, importantly, funding for public education."
School choice, however, has President Donald Trump's endorsement. Just nine days after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Education to make expanding school choice — including private, faith-based, and public charter school options — a priority.
According to EdChoice, about 1 million students participated in private school choice programs that used taxpayer dollars last year.
"Many public schools around the nation face chronic and severe underfunding, and diverting much-needed funds to pay for vouchers exacerbates that lack of resources."
Jessica Levin
Litigation director for the Education Law Center
During the hearing, several witnesses testified about the benefits of publicly funded private school choice programs.
Michael McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, said the programs can spark competition in communities with both public and private schools — and raise academic outcomes for public school students.
Jenny Clark, founder of Love Your School, a school choice advocacy group, said Arizona's empowerment scholarship account program was "transformative" for her children because of the $7,500 scholarship her family received for dyslexia resources and supports.
Clark called the state’s universal empowerment scholarship account program a "revolutionary lifeline for thousands of children."
But Jessica Levin, litigation director for the Education Law Center, said studies in some states show worse academic performance for private school choice participants compared to their public school counterparts. Additionally, data from several states shows a majority of vouchers aren’t used by low-income students, but rather by more affluent families who are already sending their children to private schools, she said.
Students attending rural schools often don't have private school options, but their schools lose funding due to private school choice programs, said Levin, who also directs the Public Schools Public Funds campaign to ensure public tax dollars are used for public schools.
"Many public schools around the nation face chronic and severe underfunding, and diverting much-needed funds to pay for vouchers exacerbates that lack of resources," Levin said.
But Rep. Kiley said that currently only families who can afford private school tuition enjoy universal school choice for their children.
"The troubling theme that comes out of this [hearing] is that the opposition is really to anything that disrupts the business model of keeping kids trapped in failing schools, and it's that business model that has led to this education decline in our country," Kiley said.
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