How the Tax Credit for School Choice Can Be Used

The White House hosted a roundtable yesterday on school choice. Under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, taxpayers can receive an up to $1,700 annual credit for school choice. States have to opt in for it to be available. And joining me now is an attendee of the roundtable, Jonathan Butcher. He's the acting director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation. It's great to have you with us, Jonathan. Tell us about this tax credit and how it can be used and whether it will benefit children. Well, this event came at just the right time. It was the end of National School Choice Week this week, and the Trump administration is celebrating really a remarkable period for school choice in the U.S. With the passage of education savings accounts in Texas, that means that more than half of all children in the U.S. have access to some form of private learning opportunity. This is very exciting for parents who are looking for quality options for their children, whether it's due to safety concerns at their school, whether it's due to looking for extra help for their children or special services for children with special needs. This is really an exciting time for parents all over the country. Jonathan, I follow what you're saying. And even under the Biden administration, several red states allowed this push for access to school choice. And, you know, Texas is one of them. You know, you mentioned a few others, you know, California and New York haven't actually joined in on this effort yet. Now, which states have yet to opt in? And why haven't they? So more than half of all states in the U.S. already have some form of private school scholarship program. About half of states, 25 as of yesterday, have opted into the program that you described in the one big, beautiful bill. And I think what should be encouraging to lawmakers around the country is that the Trump administration has said they are very serious about making sure the rules and regulations around this new scholarship program will protect private schools and the parents who are participating. Because, of course, there could be the possibility that at some point regulators could try to strangle private schools and make it difficult for religious schools in particular to maintain their mission statements and be able to enroll students based on the way that they want children to be educated and the parents who have entrusted their children to them. So I think that we're in really a great position right now for state lawmakers to continue to expand private school options, such as they're considering in Mississippi, as well as other states that are looking to create new opportunities for students. So Jonathan, a White House official reportedly said that there are faith-based programs in private schooling, as well as these career-oriented paths. Open to comment on that, or you could give us a little more detail on what this strangling process looks like that you were alluding to. Well, there are some private school choice programs that have made restrictions on the participating private schools. So Maryland, for example, several years ago, when they adopted a private school choice program, they tried to change the way that religious schools conducted their enrollment procedures. And that, of course, put restrictions on the parents who were trying to choose a school for their child based on their values. Fortunately, there are provisions that state lawmakers can use based off of the education savings accounts in Arizona, for example, that say specifically that lawmakers may not put restrictions or otherwise try to confine the mission statements or enrollment procedures of participating private schools. And this is great news. I mean, look, in Arizona, just over the past 10 days, we've heard news that now 100,000 children are using education savings accounts in the state of Arizona. In Florida, we're up to half a million children using some form of private school scholarship program. This is really a turning point in the school choice market for parents and children across the country. Okay. Now, how will expanded school choice affect those inner city low-income students? Well, fortunately, some of these private school choice programs actually originated to serve children in low-income areas. In fact, the very first private school scholarship program was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for children from low-income homes. In Washington, D.C., until recently, the only federal school choice program was for children in low-income areas in Washington, D.C. So in many places, in fact, 17 states in the U.S. have programs that allow any child, regardless of their background, to apply for an education savings account within their state. And again, we're talking about places like West Virginia, as well as Louisiana and Texas and Florida. So it has now become the way that lawmakers look at school choice is to make it universal, to make it something that every child, regardless of their background, can participate. Research finds that these programs help children, especially those from low-income backgrounds. So let's say there's a person who has a child enrolled in a public school. Explain the money dynamics when more people start choosing where they send their kids. Well, this will have no impact on public school finances. When children leave a traditional school to pick a school of their choice, the money will go with that child. And so the school will not be paid for ghost students, students who are no longer there. And remember that most spending comes from state and local taxpayers. So anything that happens on the federal side, such as this new federal tax credit scholarship, we're only talking about a very small portion of the per-student spending for most students. And research finds that increased spending on public schools does not improve student achievement. And in fact, these private school choice options improve not only student achievement, but also student attainment. It shows that they will be more likely to finish high school. And some research has found that they can attend and persist in college at higher rates if they participate in a private school scholarship program. Very fascinating insight, Jonathan. We just have a few seconds here, a couple sentences. What work still needs to be done to ensure that all American children have access to the best education? Well, I think we're looking at Mississippi in particular right now. There's a great opportunity there to expand an existing private school choice opportunity for families there. And so I think lawmakers should be looking at the success in places like Arizona, Florida, as well as the research showing that students can achieve more when they use a private school choice program. And that should encourage Mississippi lawmakers as they consider these proposals. Jonathan Butcher, thanks for coming on our show and sharing us all that information. Thank you.