A recent Gallup poll shows that by a 33% margin, the American public agrees with President Trump’s school choice plan.
The question asking for opinion regarding plans to “provide federal funding for school choice programs that allow students to attend any private or public school” netted 60% of Republicans in favor, along with 8% of Democrats.
According to EAGNews.org, the president has proposed $250 million for the next fiscal year in support of school choice.
From the article:
Trump’s proposal to spend $250 million on school choice is part of a broader campaign promise to eventually steer up to $20 billion to expand educational options for families, particularly low-income families that are often stuck in poor performing school districts.
It’s currently unclear exactly how the Trump administration envisions the program will work, but “a lot of people expect that the proposal you’ll hear from the administration directly will likely be for a tax credit for people who donate to organizations that give scholarships,” Neal McCluskey, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Reform, told U.S. News & World Report.
“A tax credit would get a lot less political pushback,” McCluskey said. “The interesting part of that is, I don’t know if the Department of Education itself would have to be all that involved in it because it’s working through the tax code. But I think what you’d see is Secretary DeVos being the public spokesperson for the administration’s proposal to have a scholarship tax credit.”
A total of 17 states currently have some type of scholarship tax program in place, though each carries different eligibility requirements for students and those who donate.
Lawmakers from two of those states, Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, and Rep. Todd Rokia, of Indiana, introduced the Educational Opportunities Act in January for a federal tax credit program that would establish a maximum $4,500 tax credit for those who donate to the program. Money raised would go to vouchers for students whose family incomes do not exceed 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
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