Don’t trust the federal government with the nation’s largest school choice program

School choice is sweeping the nation, and with Texas adopting a comprehensive program, over half of U.S. students are now eligible to take their K-12 education dollars to private providers. This trend is positive—school choice helps families access options that are a better fit and fosters competition, which research suggests makes public schools better. Now, Republicans in Congress are taking aim at federal school choice, including a tax credit scholarship program in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed the House. But giving Congress the keys to the nation’s largest school choice program would be a colossal mistake for the education freedom movement.

Under the proposal, individuals and businesses would receive tax credits for donating to scholarship-granting organizations —nonprofits that would award funds to students for things like private school tuition, homeschooling curricula, and other educational purposes. The program would initially be capped at $5 billion annually, or enough to fund about one million students at $5,000 each.

Proponents say the federal program would bring school choice to all 50 states, making about 90% of all U.S. students eligible to participate overnight. While we share this goal, there are practical reasons to respect federalism with school choice. 

For starters, a federal school choice program would establish a one-stop shop for Congress to impose nationwide mandates on participating private schools. In its current form, the bill’s language already includes a deal-breaker: participating private schools would be forced to accept all students with disabilities and follow the Individualized Education Plans (IEP) created for them by public schools. IEPs are notoriously bureaucratic documents that specify things like required services and accommodations, paying little attention to student outcomes.

While many private schools specialize in special education—at least 137,000 special needs students participate in school choice—some aren’t set up to provide these services. And for students with disabilities, making private schools more like public schools defeats the whole point of school choice: providing alternatives to public schools’ byzantine special education system.

But this would only be the start of federal intrusion into private schools. The next time Democrats control Congress, they can rewrite the law to teachers’ unions benefit such as subjecting private schools to curricular standards, testing mandates, on-site inspections, admissions requirements, and more. 

While attacks on school choice are nothing new, a federal program that would be the biggest in the nation raises the stakes too high for everyone. Regulations like these would standardize private schools, resulting in fewer meaningful alternatives for families. It’s hard to see how this wouldn’t happen–just look at how Congress has weakened the federal D.C. private school voucher program over time, or the regulatory bureaucracy that has evolved around other federal tax credits.

A federal school choice program would also kill state-level momentum at a crucial time. School choice advocates are on a roll, passing 16 programs with universal student eligibility since the start of COVID-19. But even in red states, lawmakers phasing in these programs, including West Virginia, Louisiana, and Arkansas, face fierce opposition over the cost to state budgets, putting planned school choice program expansions at risk. 

“We have this line item [education savings accounts] that continues to just expand that may have been good in concept when we chose to do this, but the application now we see is causing some problems,” says West Virginia Republican delegate Dana Farrell, who, notably, is supportive of school choice. 

Even though state-level concerns about escalating choice program costs are overblown, a federal program might lead state leaders to decide that the budget battles aren’t worth it, while giving opponents an easy talking point. Similarly, states considering new policies, such as Mississippi and Montana, would have weaker incentives to invest state dollars if federal tax credits are covering the tab. 

Every family should be able to choose the education that aligns with their unique needs and values. For states without school choice programs, the best path forward is to convince state lawmakers and voters that private alternatives are good for kids and can strengthen public schools. But achieving this aim through Congress is shortsighted and threatens the core pillar of school choice: reducing the government’s role in K-12 education. Federal school choice would be a step in the wrong direction.

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