In 2025, US President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure families are able to align their children’s education with their values and unique needs. Trump’s January 29, 2025, Executive Order expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families sets a clear goal: to provide parents with the flexibility to determine the best educational options for their children.
The congressional mandate to rewrite the federal tax code this year presents a clear path to achieving that goal by including the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) in the major tax bill currently being negotiated in the House and Senate.
Modeled after similar tax laws in nearly two dozen states, the ECCA would make $10 billion in tax credits available to individuals and corporations to offset contributions to nonprofit organizations that award scholarships to eligible students from kindergarten through to 12th grade. ECCA scholarships could be used for private school tuition, tutoring, special needs services, educational technology, and curriculum materials.
Because eligibility for these opportunity scholarships would be based on income, with parents earning up to 300% of the local median income eligible to receive scholarships for their children, most low and middle-income families could benefit.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is proud to be a part of the broadest-based educational opportunity coalition ever to unite behind a single school-choice proposal. More than 150 national and state-level organizations are working together to make educational freedom a reality for families of all backgrounds and children of all needs.
The momentum was evident when RJC’s legislative team joined more than 200 Jewish community members and leaders from across the country who gathered in Washington, DC, for Agudath Israel of America’s National Leadership Mission for School Choice.
This impressive contingent of activists, composed of parents, community leaders, rabbis, and teachers, visited nearly 100 congressional offices to deliver a single message:
By passing ECCA, you can help more than one million students across the United States access the educational support they need, in a way that doesn’t grow government, add red tape, or divert a single dollar from public school budgets.
Families across the country struggle to pay for their children to receive a Jewish education. The cost of yeshiva or Jewish day school, especially for larger families, easily adds up to tens of thousands of dollars per year – an expense that many are unable to afford.
By incentivizing individuals and businesses to fund educational scholarships in their communities, ECCA will alleviate the hardship these families face, fulfilling two of Judaism’s highest ideals: education and tzedaka (charitable giving).
Critical decisions about what will be included in legislation to implement the GOP growth and opportunity agenda are being made in the next few weeks. A major victory for Jewish families is within reach.
It’s time for school choice supporters to make sure our representatives in Congress know that we support including the Educational Choice for Children Act in the tax bill.
The writer is a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board of directors and co-chair of its Legislative Affairs Committee.