Editor’s note: This story has been updated after President Donald Trump signed the bill.
Education choice, which has long been the domain of statehouses, is now enshrined in federal law.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation that offers the nation’s first national education choice scholarship program.
The signing comes a day after the U.S. House approved the Senate-backed version of the federal budget reconciliation package in time for an Independence Day signing ceremony. Within the bill is the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), a groundbreaking federal education choice expansion.
ECCA creates a 100% federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 for individuals to donate to state-approved scholarship granting organizations. Those SGOs would in turn grant scholarships to K-12 students in the state where they operate.
ECCA has been moving through the Congressional budget process for months. The proposal was substantially revised last week in the Senate based on a ruling from the chamber parliamentarian that the language violated its Byrd Rule.
One of the significant changes was that individual states must “opt-in” to the program by “authorizing” SGOs to receive tax-credited donations. This will likely curtail the ability for families in states with leadership hostile to education choice to receive ECCA scholarships, as those states will potentially not participate.
The changes also include making the tax credit program permanent (removing a previous sunset clause) and removing any cap on the amount of $1,700 tax credits that can be raised (previous versions of ECCA proposed total program caps and a higher tax credit donation amount).
“For the first time in American history, the U.S. government will enshrine into law a federal tax credit for school choice,” said U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, after the Senate passed its version of the bill. “This is an historic change in U.S. law that will favorably impact the school choice movement for the next 50 years.”
Tommy Schultz, CEO of the national school choice group American Federation for Children, called the passing of school choice “a historic moment for America’s families and students” and emphasized in a July 3 statement that his organization will “continue to fight to ensure that this tax credit scholarship mechanism is well implemented — and expanded as soon as possible.”
