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, the "Universal School Choice Act," creates federal tax credits for individuals and corporations that donate to nonprofit scholarship organizations. Individual taxpayers can claim a credit up to the greater of 10% of income or $5,000; corporations can claim up to 5% of taxable income. The program has a $10 billion annual cap distributed among states based on student population and poverty rates. Scholarship funds can be used for private school tuition (including religious schools), tutoring, books, special needs services, and other education expenses. Scholarship recipients must be income-excluded from taxes. The bill explicitly bars government interference with participating schools and scholarship organizations, and protects religious schools from discrimination.
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 a federal tax credit program ("Universal School Choice Act") for individual and corporate contributions to scholarship granting organizations that fund private elementary and secondary education, including religious schools.
Who Benefits
- Private and religious K-12 schools
- Scholarship granting organizations
- Families seeking alternatives to public schools
Who Bears Costs
- Public school systems (potential enrollment and funding loss)
- Federal Treasury (foregone tax revenue estimated at up to $10B/year)
Key Policy Areas
Education, Tax Policy
Primary Purpose
Creates a federal tax credit program ("Universal School Choice Act") for individual and corporate contributions to scholarship granting organizations that fund private elementary and secondary education, including religious schools.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Create a parallel funding mechanism for private and religious K-12 education through tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting nonprofits, with a $10B annual volume cap allocated among states by student population and poverty rates."
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Cruz introduced the following bill; which was read twice …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Private and religious K-12 schools, Private and religious elementary and secondary schools, Public school systems
Scholarship granting organizations faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Private and religious K-12 schools, Private and religious elementary and secondary schools, Scholarship granting organizations (501(c)(3) nonprofits)
Negative-direction: Public school systems
Individual taxpayers, Individual taxpayers making charitable contributions
Federal Treasury, Federal, state, and local government education agencies
States with high poverty student populations
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An individual eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school
A charitable contribution to a scholarship granting organization in cash or marketable securities
Expenses including tuition, curricula, books, instructional materials, online materials, tutoring, testing, special needs services, transportation, uniforms, and other approved expenses
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides scholarships for qualified education expenses and allocates at least 90% of receipts to scholarships
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