Taxpayer Funded Private Religious Schools Act

Official Title: Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 (H.R. 833/S. 292)

Introduced by Reps. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Burgess Owens (R-UT), and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against tax for charitable donations to nonprofit organizations providing education scholarships to qualified elementary and secondary students. In other words, it provides a 100% tax credit to individuals and corporations that donate to private school scholarship organizations. It would create a new, government-funded scheme for private school vouchers, which would benefit the mega-rich, undermine public education, violate church-state separation, and weaken the broader nonprofit sector.

Defunds Public Schools and Creates Taxpayer-Funded Private Religious Schools:

• ECCA would direct billions in potential federal revenue to subsidize private, mostly religious, schools — at the expense of the 90% of American students who attend public schools. That’s money that could be going to teacher salaries, school nutrition programs, or individualized support for students with disabilities.
• ECCA does not support students — it supports private scholarship organizations that will have no public oversight and no legal obligation to serve all children. These organizations can exclude students based on religion, disability, or academic performance, further alienating working families.
• The scholarship organizations would be accountable to their ultra-wealthy donors, not the needs of students.

Fuels Discrimination and Religious Indoctrination — with Taxpayer Dollars:

• ECCA funnels public money to private religious schools that are not subject to the same civil rights standards as public schools. Many of these schools explicitly discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and staff, refuse to admit children with disabilities, or require adherence to specific religious doctrines.
• These institutions are also free to teach pseudoscience, such as climate change denial or creationism — all while receiving taxpayer dollars. This is a direct violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. No American should be forced to fund religious education or private religious institutions that undermine core constitutional values.

A Tax Shelter for the Ultra-Wealthy to Undercut Working Families:

• By creating a 100 percent, dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to private school voucher organizations, this bill creates a tax avoidance scheme for the ultra-wealthy and corporations to not only zero out their entire federal tax bill but even turn a profit – all while using taxpayer money to fund religious schools that discriminate in admissions, curriculum and hiring.
• The billions in tax credits are given out on a first-come, first-served basis. Given how lucrative this tax shelter would be, tax experts expect that the credit cap will be met within the first day, because well connected accounting and law firms will be able to process transactions rapidly on behalf of their wealthiest clientele, while lower-wealth individuals will be cut out of the tax benefit.

Drains Resources from Other Nonprofits and Community-Based Giving:

• While donors can already receive tax deductions for donations to nonprofits, ECCA’s far more advantageous dollar-for-dollar tax credit would distort charitable giving by creating a new class of federally favored donations. Donors who currently support community nonprofits — including food banks, veterans' groups, hospitals, and housing assistance programs — would have a powerful financial incentive to redirect their giving to religious school scholarship organizations instead.
• ECCA creates a privileged class of giving that uses public subsidies to steer money toward religious and exclusionary private institutions, at the expense of our public schools and all other nonprofit organizations.
• ECCA is not a tax deduction, where a donor reduces their taxable income — it’s a direct tax credit that offsets what taxpayers owe to the government. ECCA allows donors to give corporate stock and avoid capital gains taxes. Under this scheme, someone like DeVos — who has long championed religious school funding — could not only zero out her tax liability but even turn a profit, all while using taxpayer money to fund religious schools that discriminate in admissions, curriculum, and hiring.