House passes GOP agenda bill; Trump to host meme coin dinner
Public education advocates are pushing to stop the “One Big Beautiful Bill” over a provision that would essentially create the first national school voucher program.
The budget package passed today by the House includes a provision that would allocate $20 billion in tax credits for people who donate to scholarship funds that support students attending private K-12 schools. For each dollar given, the donor’s tax bill is reduced by $1, a rate that’s three times more generous than tax incentives for donations to other nonprofits such as veterans’ organizations and food banks.
Civil rights groups have also raised concern because private schools that do not take money directly from the government are exempt from gender and racial equality laws and are not required to accommodate students with disabilities.
“It’s devastating,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. “This is the first time the federal government is opening the doors wide open to funding private schools and kids who homeschool, and doing so through the tax code.”
The National Coalition for Public Education, which includes disability rights groups, teachers unions, the National Parent Teacher Association, school administrator associations and some liberal-leaning organizations, held a webinar today urging people to call their senators to oppose the provision.
The proposal also permits people to avoid paying federal and state capital gains taxes by contributing corporate stock to scholarship organizations, which could cost states millions, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
“The result would be a profitable tax shelter for wealthy people who agree to help funnel public funds into private schools,” Amy Hanauer, the institute’s executive director, said in the webinar. “That is to say they would get more money by donating their stock than by selling it.”
The congressional proposal, which Democrats tried unsuccessfully to strip in committee, is backed by private school activist organizations, some Catholic and Jewish groups, and the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.
GOP senators are expected to make changes to the budget bill, but several have already backed the school tax credit proposal.
“Mothers and fathers should have the freedom to get their child out of a school that is not meeting their needs and into a better one,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate HELP Committee, said in a statement this week. “That could be a private school, charter school, homeschooling, or other options as the parent sees fit. But moms and dads may hesitate to do so because of the higher costs associated with alternative education options.”
While state voucher programs rapidly expanded in recent years, in many red states, pro-Trump conservatives have opposed attempts to create voucher programs, largely due to concern about how much money it could pull away from rural school districts.