School choice movement embraces new possibilities with Trump presidency

School choice advocates are getting a champion for their cause in the Oval Office, bringing new possibilities for a movement that had largely been fighting at the state level for years.

Supporters of vouchers and other school choice options have seen both successes and failures in states across the country, but they are looking to seize the opportunity under a GOP Congress and President-elect Trump.

“I know that there's certainly going to be a push in Congress" for a federal tax credit scholarship for school choice, said Ed Tarnowski, a policy and advocacy director for Ed Choice. “We certainly support anything that's going to empower families to choose the education best fit for them.” 

Vice President-elect J.D. Vance previously signed on to the Educational Choice for Children Act to create the program that gives tax credits to individuals who donate to nonprofits that give K-12 scholarship funds.  

“We hope there'll be action,” said Peter Murphy, the vice president for policy at Invest in Education, adding the Educational Choice for Children Act has “been out there for several years now” and “has the most support” of any federal school choice bill proposed.  

“That would be an obvious place to fulfill [Trump's] commitment to expanding school choice across the country,” he added.  

One of Trump’s platform pledges was “to protect the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children’s education," and when he nominated Linda McMahon last week to be his Education secretary, Trump said her top priority would be to “fight tirelessly to expand 'Choice' to every State in America.” 

While Trump did not push school choice as an issue in his first administration, multiple states have embraced it in the years since.

Most recently, North Carolina and Arkansas have increased the budgets for their school choice programs, by $463.5 million and $90 million, respectively. 

Texas has seen years of campaigning and infighting on the issue, but this month's elections will ensure that the state government moves forward on school choice.

"Our job as Texas leaders is to make sure that we're going to provide the most effective pathway options for every child in our state to be able to achieve the education that's going to be best for them and to allow their parents to be able to make that decision," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said after declaring there was enough backing now to pass school choice in 2025, KDFW reported. 

Over the past four years, more than a dozen states have implemented some sort of education savings accounts (ESAs), programs that give parents a certain amount of money that they can use on private school or homeschooling options.  

“I guess I will confess to sort of a rueful amusement that there's folks in the charter and choice world who have high expectations of the second Trump administration, because he was in favor of choice and charters in the first administration, and I think the sector kind of insufficiently took advantage of that,” said Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.    

“I was in more than one meeting during those years when people in the charter sector claimed that Trump was bad for charters. And I remember being rather ruefully amused by that, because he and Betsy DeVos were rather were in favor of charters,” he added. “But in other words, because of the political sentiments, there was a reluctance to engage. I think some of that seems to be less the case this time around, which is good.” 

But the movement has also seen significant losses at the state level, particularly at the ballot box. Voters this year in Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska all rejected pro-school choice ballot initiatives.

“The historical context is these type of bills have never passed before in a statewide ballot initiative, so voters and parents, when actually given a choice on the ballot, have rejected these types of public funding for private school tuition,” Joshua Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University and senior fellow at Education Law Center, told The Hill before Election Day.

Proponents of school choice say this month's rejections were based off the phrasing of the initiatives, but opponents are hopeful they are a sign of slowing momentum. 

“I think that that was a really powerful statement,” said Qubilah Huddleston, the manager of Ed Trust’s policy positions on equitable school funding. School choice initiatives, she added, “by and large, they’re not popular."

“We are definitely worried about how the incoming administration may push privatization at the federal level. Whether there will be any compelling states to have voucher programs is also something that we are monitoring,” Huddleston said.  

Whatever happens at the federal level, school choice advocates say the environment should be conducive for other states to consider new policies.

“I would certainly hope that it would spark new conversations in states that haven't had much education freedom or choice yet,” Tarnowski said.