(Headline USA) The election of Donald Trump returns an ally of school choice to the White House, this time with a Republican-controlled Senate — and potentially House — that could be more supportive of proposals that fizzled during his first term.
Although proposals to expand private schooling suffered high-profile defeats in several states, Trump’s victory has brought new optimism to advocates of supporting school choice at the federal level. One of their main priorities: tax credits for donations to organizations that provide private school scholarships.
Jim Blew, who served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Education Department in the first Trump administration, said he’s hopeful the new Congress will greenlight ideas like tax credits for scholarships.
“The new members are all very clearly supportive of school choice, and I think that’s going to change the dynamics,” said Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute.
Private school choice comprises several ways of using taxpayer money to support education outside of traditional public schools, including vouchers, education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. The idea of giving this option to all families regardless of income — known as universal private school choice — has soared in popularity in recent years and is now enshrined in law in a dozen states. Nearly three dozen states have some form of private school choice.
During his campaign, Trump touted school choice as a form of greater parental rights, aimed at countering leftist indoctrination in classrooms.
One of his platform pledges is to “serve as a champion for America’s homeschool families” and “to protect the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children’s education.” He proposes allowing homeschooling families to use 529 college savings plans for spending on their children’s educational expenses, an option he advanced for private-school families during his first term.
Trump supported school choice before, but with a more favorable Congress, school choice initiatives could have a better shot. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and the front runner to chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has supported tax incentives for scholarship donations. And Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will focus the next Congress on “maximizing school choice for parents and holding woke university administrators accountable.
In Texas, various pro-voucher legislators endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott won their races. Abbott had sought to unseat GOP legislators who’d voted against a plan to subsidize private school tuition with public money. The newly elected candidates could give Abbott the votes needed to pass that voucher legislation.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
