Senate Misses Big Opportunity To Boost School Choice Across US

Senate Republicans voted yesterday to pass watered-down tax credits for taxpayers who donate to private school scholarships for K-12 students. While the provision reportedly eliminates a $5 billion cap on the program, it would allow Democrat states to opt out of the school choice initiative and leave private educators vulnerable to big-government interference with educational freedom.

The federal voucher program that passed on Tuesday is the Senate’s version of a House measure that would establish the “first nationwide school choice program … allowing U.S. taxpayers to reduce their tax bills by as much as they donate to private K-12 scholarships,” as The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann described. A robust tax-credit scholarship program, Pullmann noted, “would significantly assist in reversing America’s cultural decline.”

As passed by Senate Republicans, however, the bill “now allows states to opt out,” permitting blue states to shirk granting funds to private education, according to The New York Times. Furthermore, the organizations that provide the school choice scholarships will now only be able to do so in their own states.

Of further concern is the bill’s apparent elimination of protections for religious and educational freedom in the private schools and homeschools that make use of these funds. As Forbes reported, “The House version included a typical voucher Disclaimer that the government could not exert any sort of control or regulation of private and religious schools that accept the vouchers,” but the “Senate version gives the Secretary of the Treasury authority to oversee the scholarship granting organizations.”

“Unlike the more expansive plan the House passed in late May, the Senate gives states a say over which groups can participate and strikes language that would have prohibited any control over private schools,” the education outlet The 74 reported. This omission could result in the federal government dictating policy and curricula to the students and institutions receiving scholarship funds.

On the positive side, the Senate version of the measure does away with the House’s $5 billion limit, according to Forbes, dramatically increasing the potential funding available for school choice scholarships, while also making the provision a “permanent feature of the tax law,” as reported by EdWeek. The Senate’s provision also tweaks donation limits: The “House version allowed donors to give up to 10% of their income to the voucher program, the Senate version limits donations to no more than $1,700,” Forbes reported.

The provision ultimately passed the Senate, but not until after it was changed following the parliamentarian’s advice. The Democrat-picked parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, reportedly encouraged slashing the provision entirely on Friday. However, as The Federalist’s Sean Davis noted, “Anything she recommends can be ignored or overridden with a majority vote.” 

Democrat senators almost succeeded in passing “an amendment that would have removed the federal voucher language” early Tuesday morning, according to Forbes.

Peter Murphy, senior advisor to the Invest in Education Coalition, told The Federalist that the provision passed on Tuesday is “scaled back from its original form.” Still, Murphy and other education advocates nonetheless consider the provision a “historical breakthrough.”

Others have also expressed concern about how the Senate “provision is significantly watered down from the one school choice advocates have been working toward since the first Trump administration.” As the Defense of Freedom Institute Co-Founder Jim Blew told The 74: The Senate’s changes “make it very, very hard to put funds into the hands of families who just want to get their children in a better school.” Blew further argued that the $1,700 limit would hamper the program.

School choice enjoys widespread support, with 80 percent of K-12 parents favoring education tax credits. As Pullmann reported, tax-credit scholarships in particular “are yet another 70-30 issue that President Trump has finally rallied much of the Republican Party behind. Even majorities of Democrat voters support them, including some 70 percent of non-white Americans.”

Only 28 percent of parents “believe K-12 education is headed in the right direction,” and many Americans feel like their children are trapped in public schools because of finances. Three in five parents would choose a school type other than public school, EdChoice reported.

President Trump says he hopes to sign the final budget bill on July 4.

Abigail Nichols is a correspondent for The Federalist. She was previously the opinion editor for the University of South Florida’s student newspaper, The Oracle. She is now working as the business manager at the University of North Florida’s student-run media outlet, Spinnaker Media, while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Social work.