To amend 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.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
This bill creates a $10 billion per year federal tax credit program to fund private school scholarships. Individual taxpayers would receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to approved scholarship granting organizations, up to the greater of 10% of their income or $5,000. Corporations get a similar credit up to 5% of taxable income. The money flows to nonprofit scholarship organizations that must spend at least 90% on actual scholarships for K-12 students. Scholarships can cover tuition, fees, tutoring, textbooks, technology, and other educational expenses at private and religious schools. The scholarship income is tax-free. The $10 billion annual cap is allocated across states based on child population and poverty rates. The bill explicitly prohibits the government from regulating participating private or religious schools and protects religious schools from discrimination based on their religious character.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates federal tax credits for individual and corporate contributions to scholarship granting organizations that fund private and religious K-12 education, with a $10 billion annual volume cap allocated to states, explicit protections for religious school autonomy, and tax-free treatment of scholarship income.
Who Benefits
- Private and religious K-12 schools (increased enrollment via scholarships)
- Families choosing private education (scholarships and tax-free income)
- Wealthy donors (tax credits up to 10% of AGI or $5,000)
Who Bears Costs
- Federal government ($10B/year revenue loss)
- Public school systems (potential enrollment and funding loss)
- Taxpayers (reduced federal revenue)
Key Policy Areas
Education, Tax
Primary Purpose
Creates federal tax credits for individual and corporate contributions to scholarship granting organizations that fund private and religious K-12 education, with a $10 billion annual volume cap allocated to states, explicit protections for religious school autonomy, and tax-free treatment of scholarship income.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Create a federal school choice program through the tax code rather than direct federal spending, using tax credits to incentivize private donations to scholarship organizations that fund private and religious school attendance, with strong protections against government regulation of participating schools."
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Owens (for himself and Mr. Donalds) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Families choosing private/religious K-12 education, Families receiving K-12 scholarships from SGOs, K-12 scholarship recipients
Scholarship granting organizations faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Families choosing private/religious K-12 education, Families receiving K-12 scholarships from SGOs, K-12 scholarship recipients, Low-income families seeking private education, Parents choosing private education, Private and religious K-12 schools, Private and religious elementary and secondary schools, Private and religious schools, Scholarship recipients
Negative-direction: Public school systems
Federal Treasury, Federal government (revenue loss), High-poverty states
Positive-direction: High-poverty states, States with large child populations
Negative-direction: Federal Treasury, Federal government (revenue loss)
Corporations making education contributions
Individual taxpayers making charitable education contributions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An individual who is eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school.
A charitable contribution in cash or marketable securities to a scholarship granting organization.
Tuition, fees, tutoring, special needs services, textbooks, supplies, technology, transportation, and other education-related expenses.
A 501(c)(3) organization that provides scholarships for qualified K-12 education expenses, with more than 90% of receipts going to scholarship purposes.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology