As the Trump Administration makes deep cuts into the Education Department (ED), with the stated goal of eliminating the agency all together, House Republicans have proposed establishing a $5 billion voucher program for families to send their children to private schools.
While the move props up Trump’s goal of “universal school choice,” opponents say vouchers and similar programs use public funds to promote private institutions at the expense of school systems that will continue to serve the vast majority of American students.
The proposal was announced as part of a House budget reconciliation bill, an expedited process to approve legislation that affects the federal budget (specifically by changing how much money the government spends or takes in) with a simple majority vote. In the past, this process has been used to pass Trump’s 2017 tax act and Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.
The new voucher scheme would draw from the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), proposed earlier this year by Representative Adrian Smith (R, NE). The bill would qualify just about everyone to apply for a voucher to fund their child’s private school education, so long as they did not make 300% more than the median gross income of the area.
While the program would be funded by donors, those donors would receive 100% of their contribution back via tax discounts — an unprecedented dollar-for-dollar match. Donations of stocks would be allowed as well, which would enable those donors to avoid paying taxes they would otherwise have to if they donated or otherwise transferred stock. This has led some critics to categorize the Act as a kind of “tax haven” for savvy investors, as the savings would typically be larger than contributions.
The Institute on Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that donations for a federal voucher program would reach approximately $126 billion over the next 10 years and cost the Treasury more than $134 billion in tax subsidies. On top of that, additional tax breaks would be available in most states on top of federal savings to donors which could, ITEP estimates, could take an additional $2 billion in public funds.
“In effect,” they write, “ECCA seeks to harness wealthy families’ interest in tax avoidance and personal profit as a means of bolstering private schools at the expense of public budgets.”
School voucher programs are not new. Currently, according to Education Week, 20 states have tax-credit scholarships and 10 plus the District of Columbia have vouchers. Additional programs that provide tax relief for private school families — including tax credits and tax-free education savings accounts — exist throughout the country.
On May 3, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill to establish a $1 billion voucher program to begin in 2026, with costs expected to soar in subsequent years. Though the logistics of how these vouchers would be implemented for the 2026-2027 academic year remain unclear, the vast majority of Texans would be eligible. And while priority will be given to children with disabilities and children at or below the poverty level, priority does not guarantee enrollment in the program. And, indeed, up to 20% of the program’s $1 billion budget could go towards wealthy families who earn more than 500% or more of the poverty rate. That’s about $160,000 according to reporting from The Texas Tribune.
Existing voucher and similar programs have been criticized by the National Education Association (NEA) as ineffective in improving student outcomes, expensive, and created in response to desegregation and Brown v Board of Education. NEA also notes that voucher programs often overwhelmingly support wealthy students already attending private schools and diminish accountability for public funds.
“Private schools have almost complete autonomy with regard to how they operate: who they teach, what they teach, how they teach, how (if at all) they measure student achievement, how they manage their finances, and what they are required to disclose to parents and the public,” they write. “Moreover, the absence of public accountability for voucher funds has contributed to rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in current voucher programs.”
Public education — specifically, cutting funds for public education — has been a core tenet of the Trump administration’s second term. The president’s budget proposal for 2026 also includes a 15.3% reduction to the ED budget and eliminating $163 billion in domestic spending, including deep cuts to education programs. Already this year, the administration has eliminated $1 billion in funding for teacher training and school mental health initiatives.
Encouraging more privatization of schools is in keeping with these cuts. During the signing of an executive order to dismantle ED (a move that cannot be done without congressional approval), Trump said.
“I want every parent in America to be empowered to send their child to public, private, charter, or faith-based school of their choice. The time for universal school choice has come. As we return education to the states, I will use every power I have to give parents this right.”