Isabel Smrstik
Associate Editor
Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2027
Almost 10% of K-12 students – approximately 4.7 million children – were enrolled in private schools as of the fall of 2021. Families today are increasingly attracted to private schools amid rising concerns about the academic quality and safety of public schools. However, a key barrier to private schools is the cost, with 59% of parents stating they would send their children to private schools if vouchers could cover full tuition. In an effort to ease this burden, the Trump administration passed the “Educational Choice for Children Act” (the Act). This program allows parents to receive a tax credit up to $1,700 for donations made to scholarship granting organizations, increasing families’ ability to afford private schooling. However, the Act does nothing to help or subsidize families in the public school system, where a vast majority of American students still reside. Thus, with the Act, the federal government may be lessening the financial burden of private schooling, but it is doing so at the expense of public-school funding.
Modern parent motivations toward private schools
Today there are nearly 30,000 private schools operating in the United States. Parents are attracted to private education for many reasons, including smaller class sizes, specialized curriculums, and college preparatory programs. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic provided parents with even more motivation to make the switch to private as they opened for in-person instruction earlier than public schools. This was because smaller class sizes allowed private schools to implement the necessary safety measures, permitting them to bring children back into schools for socialization and academic support. Another reason parents choose private schools is academic success and test scores. Recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that private school students score better in almost all subjects when compared to public school students. For example, 8th grade private school students averaged about 20 points higher than their public or charter school counterparts on the 2024 NAEP Reading Test.
The perceived “poor quality” of urban public schools also drives up private school enrollment. There has been an increase in residential segregation by income, which impacts student populations as wealthier families continue to move to the suburbs. This leaves public schools in the city with a large population of low income students and, unfortunately, lower test scores. High-income families in cities will continue to prefer private schools and enroll their students there. So, as the middle-class continues to leave cities, they are widening the socioeconomic gap in urban schools.
Federal role for private school choice
A big barrier for families when trying to send their children to private schools is the cost. Public schools are often funded by taxpayer dollars, while private schools are funded through tuition and donations. Tuition for private school can range based, but the average tuition for attendance was $12,350 in 2021. Also, tuition rarely covers the full cost of private school attendance, as parents are expected to cover extra costs, like uniforms, books, athletic fees, and more. Parents often have to find resources on their own to help pay the tuition or look to scholarships, loans, or vouchers.
Historically, the federal government has had limited involvement in K –12 education. Around 90% of funding for elementary and secondary public education comes from state and local governments, compared to the 10% of direct support provided by the federal government. However, a new tax program included in the recent “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is amplifying the federal government’s role in education. The “Educational Choice for Children Act,” a tax-credit program starting in 2027, allows individuals to receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, up to $1,700, for donations they make to scholarship-granting organizations. Scholarship-granting organizations are non-profit groups that administer different scholarships to students attending any sort of traditional, public, charter, private, or religious schools. The result is that the government will take in less tax revenue, further tightening the budget of public schools, while private school families will receive breaks on their education costs.
While states are not required to participate in the new tax-credit program, there is a sense of pressure to participate. Governors may not want to lose out on federal money that could benefit students in their states, regardless of what type of school they go to. This issue has proven to be polarizing along party lines, with Republicans embracing the idea of having another source of funding for different educational options and Democrats being wary of threats to funding for public schools. At the end of the day, this program clearly shows a change in the federal government’s attitude toward education and will impact students in both the private and public schooling systems.
Societal impacts of the “Educational Choice for Children Act”
The Educational Choice for Children Act is a clear attempt by the federal government to encourage the use of private schools through the redirection of public education funds. This upcoming tax credit program in 2027 is just one example of an endorsement of private education options. Even though education is traditionally left up to the states, this new federal support for private schools is shifting the landscape of education. Low-income families will likely not be able to make the donation required for the tax credit and will remain stuck in the public school system. However, high income families who can afford to make the donation will receive a further incentive to choose private school with the addition of a tax-credit. Public schools, which were once the default choice for most families, may now be viewed as a second choice for educating children. While this tax credit program has not yet begun, it is indicative that the future of education is moving away from a uniform public system into a private parental choice driven by wealth.