Congress: Ensure the Educational Choice for Children Act and the Student Empowerment Act Are in the Reconciliation Package

On Thursday, in a rare sign of political health, the House managed to squeak out a budget resolution, 216-214. Producing this blueprint was a monumental lift for the Republicans’ razor-thin majority, but they achieved it just the same. Big challenges remain. In coming weeks, the majority in Congress must now agree on balancing the budgetary costs of President Trump’s proposed tax cuts against spending in defense, border control, and other major priorities.
 
Amid these gigantic programs, there is a smaller one that must not hit the cutting room floor – the well-being of children and the future of American education. Congress should make sure that two relatively small items, the Educational Choice for Children Act and the Student Empowerment Act, are kept in the coming budget reconciliation bill.
 
Urgent action is needed to address the nation’s near-catastrophic, not-very-good report card on education. The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests American students every two years. It found that the average reading scores for fourth- and eighth-grade students fell by 2 points since 2022. Math proficiency for fourth graders fell by three percent from 2019. For American eighth graders, it fell by a whopping 9 percent. There are bright spots, with improvement for students in the top tier of performance. Overall, American education saw a continuation of a decline that preceded the pandemic.
 
Clearly, traditional public-school systems in many parts of the United States need help. America’s educational mediocrity has been a crisis since the 1980s, although mediocrity might be an improvement over current performance in some school districts. A large body of research shows that educational choice can help improve the performance of public schools, as well as students overall. We’ve previously reported that economics professor William Alexander Salter of Texas Tech University has demonstrated that on the question of the impact of school choice: “Out of 28 studies that explore this question, 25 found that school choice improves educational attainment in traditional school systems. In terms of social-scientific validity, that’s a slam dunk.”

• The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) would improve both public and private schools in this way, providing tax credits for charitable donations to expand choices in quality education. Introduced by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), Rep. Burgess Owen (R-UT) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the ECCA permits tax-free private donations to help students, especially low-income ones, to take advantage of quality private education, including both secular and religious schools.

The ECCA offers $10 billion in tax credits to be divided among the states, surely an amount that can fit into this budget. Speaking to the need for this bill, Sen. Cassidy said: “More freedom empowers parents and allows American children to thrive in school.”
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• The Student Empowerment Act, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) would expand school choice by increasing the availability of 529 Education Savings Plans to include not only K-12 elementary and secondary school tuition, but also many K-12 educational expenses for public, private, and homeschool students.

“The Student Empowerment Act is commonsense legislation that will expand access to 529 savings accounts and empower American families to best meet their children’s learning needs,” Sen. Cruz said.
 
Both programs would respect American pluralism, allowing parents to make choices for their children and to express their values across generations by choosing secular or religious schools consistent with broader First Amendment protections. Amid hundreds of billions of dollars spent on other programs, these two bills are small but impactful. Kept in the budget for the president to sign, the ECCA and Student Empowerment Act will generate benefits that will resonate for the rest of the century.

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