Tax Credits, Sacred Schools, and Billionaire Blessings

How the Trump Budget Turns Religious Tuition Into a Corporate Tax Shelter

As my readers will know from my May 14 SubStack, Who Is Mad Mother, I am a retired teacher. So, you can imagine that I follow education news with great interest. That is why I want to sound the alarm about an item in the One Big Bullshit Bill that assists the Project 2025/Trump effort to eradicate the Department of Education. While the country has been rightly focused on the bill's tax cuts for billionaires and deep cuts to healthcare and SNAP, Christian Nationalists have snuck in a massive giveaway to private religious schools and their billionaire backers. ¹

Buried in the bill is a provision that allows our federal tax dollars to help pay for private, often religious, school tuition. Though similar programs exist in many states, this marks the first-ever federal private school choice program. At the same time, the bill cuts nearly $7 billion from public schools, slashing Title I, teacher training, after-school and summer programs, English learner support, and STEM enrichment. ²

The Project 2025 plan is explicit: eliminate the Department of Education and hand education back to the states. But that's only part of the story. For decades, Christian Nationalists and conservative legal groups have worked to dismantle the Establishment Clause and open public funding to religious schools. Their big break came in 2020, when the Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Since then, school choice funding has taken several forms: Vouchers, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), and Tax-credit Scholarships funneled through nonprofits. Beginning in 2027, these scholarships will become part of a federal program.

The National School Choice program delivers two of Project 2025’s major goals: expanding private religious schooling while defunding public education, and handing out an estimated $25 billion a year in corporate tax breaks.

This program would introduce the most significant and costliest new federal education program in decades. It has virtually no quality-control measures, transparency provisions, protections against discrimination, or evidence to suggest that it’s likely to improve educational outcomes. ³

The History of School Choice

Voucher programs date back decades. In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, Southern states established voucher systems to fund "segregation academies" for white students. By 1969, over 200 such academies operated in the South. ⁴

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and Moral Majority, built political coalitions around "parental rights," "school choice," and "religious freedom" — all rhetoric rooted in backlash to desegregation. Weyrich admitted, "What caused the movement to surface was the federal government’s moves against Christian schools."⁵

Current School Choice Programs

Conventional Vouchers

Modern voucher programs began with Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) in 1990. The program was initially intended for low-income students, and it excluded religious schools. That changed in 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld religious school inclusion in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.

Further rulings like Espinoza v. Montana (2020) in the U.S. Supreme Court cemented the legal mandate: States that fund secular private schools must also fund religious ones. The Heritage Foundation’s influence is clear in the ruling, with all five majority votes coming from justices handpicked by the organization.⁶

Today, the rhetoric of equity and opportunity disguises the reality: in Wisconsin, over 96% of vouchers go to students already attending private schools. Eligibility has expanded to families earning up to 300% of the poverty level. ⁷

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)

Eighteen states now offer ESA vouchers, which function like debit cards. Parents receive public funds in accounts they can use for a wide range of education expenses: tuition, tutoring, online courses, extracurriculars, tech, textbooks, and more. ESA funds can often be used for homeschooling. ⁸

As with vouchers, ESAs disproportionately benefit families already in private schools. They also allow public funds to support religious education with minimal oversight. ⁹

State Tax-Credit Scholarships and the New National School Choice Program

Roughly 20 states run Tax-Credit Scholarship programs that served as the model for the new federal program beginning in 2027. ¹⁰ ¹¹

Scholarship-Granting Organizations (SGOs):

- 501(c)(3) nonprofits (existing or newly formed) apply to become SGOs.
- SGOs can be religious or secular.
- They receive tax-credited donations and award scholarships for educational expenses.

Donations and Tax Credits:

- Individuals and (mostly) corporations donate to SGOs.
- In return, they receive a tax credit, not just a deduction.
- State programs set varying caps. The federal program allows up to $1,700 for individuals and $3,400 for married couples.

Scholarship Distribution:

- SGOs provide funds for:
- Private school tuition (including religious schools)
- Homeschooling
- Tutoring, therapies, and educational tools

Taxpayer Impact:

- These are dollar-for-dollar credits, reducing the donor's tax bill.
- Even non-itemizers benefit, making it equivalent to a public subsidy—laundered through a nonprofit.
- Corporate donors dominate the system and often max out state caps. The federal program has no cap, and analysts estimate it could cost taxpayers up to $25 billion a year.

The Real Cost of "Choice"

Undermining Public Schools

- Public funds are diverted to private and religious institutions.
- Districts lose per-pupil funding, though fixed costs (facilities, staff) remain.
- Students left behind in public schools have fewer resources, especially in high-poverty areas.

Excluding the Poorest and Most Vulnerable

- Low-income families often lack transportation, internet, or time to access school choice.
- Private schools can reject students with disabilities, language barriers, or behavioral challenges.
- Most beneficiaries are families already in private schools or those with the resources to navigate complex systems. (washingtonpost.com, brookings.edu)

Lack of Oversight and Equity Protections

- Public schools must comply with civil rights laws, testing mandates, and special education requirements.
- Private schools receiving public funds are not held to the same standards. They may teach religious doctrine, discriminate in admissions, and avoid academic testing or accountability.

Conclusion

The biggest danger from today’s school choice programs isn't racial segregation. It’s a well-funded, well-camouflaged effort to privatize education, defund public schools, and funnel public money to religious institutions and corporate donors. Other than the states declining to participate, or Congressional action, the program will begin in 2027.

With no federal cap and little transparency, the program is a massive windfall for religious schools and corporations — and another knife in the back of public education!

Footnotes:

1. Unprecedented’ Private School Voucher Tax Credit in Trump’s Megabill – Kiplinger

2. Trump administration holds back nearly $7 billion in federal education funding – Chalkbeat

3. Educational choice opens the door to waste, fraud, and abuse – Brookings

4. Separate and Unequal Schools: The Past Is Future – Southern Spaces

5. Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America – An Evangelical’s Lament (2006)

6. SCOTUSblog – Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue Decision Summary

7. Washington Post: 96% of Wisconsin voucher money goes toward religious schools frequently attended before program enrollment

8. What Is an Education Savings Account? – EdChoice

9. School Choice in the United States – Wikipedia

10. Tax‑Credit Scholarships – EdChoice

11. ‘Unprecedented’ Private School Voucher Tax Credit in Trump’s Megabill – Kiplinger