Federal scholarship for private school and homeschooling opening to most kids in at least 30 states

Federal scholarship for private school.

Key points

• Secretary of Education Linda McMahon takes a seat ahead of the Small Business Administration's Million Dollar Pitch Competition, Friday, Sept.
• The first national school choice scholarship program, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will launch Jan.
• The book, Do What Works, features a chapter by Governor Tate Reeves and Dr.
• Governors from Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon have remarked their states will not join, with some arguing these programs divert resources from public schools.
• Cory Booker's coming back to Mississippi to again campaign against Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Federal scholarship for private school and homeschooling opening to most kids in at least 30 states. By: Bianca Vasquez Toness, Associated Press – October 1, 2026.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon takes a seat ahead of the Small Business Administration's Million Dollar Pitch Competition, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert).

Mississippi is among at least 30 states to opt into the program which intends to backing school choice and is projected to benefit concerning 96% of children in participating states.

Almost all schoolchildren in at least 30 states can apply for a new federal scholarship next year to assist pay for private school, homeschooling and other educational expenses, according to regulations proposed Thursday by the Trump administration.

For context, the first national school choice scholarship program, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will launch Jan. 1, establishing a taxpayer-funded incentive for families to choose private or homeschooling in participating states. Taxpayers who donate to an organization passing out the scholarships will receive a federal tax credit, a perk projected to further fuel the conservative school choice movement.

Regarding 96% of children in those states should be eligible, according to the department. Children attending public schools could employ the scholarships for extra learning expenses.

"Education freedom is the key to unlocking opportunity and success for our next generation of students, " remarked U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in an official note issued Thursday. The federal scholarship program, she remarked, will ensure "every child has access to the education they need, not one limited by ZIP code, family income, or government‑imposed barriers."

School choice scholarships have been available for decades in conservative-led states and throughout the South, giving individual students taxpayer-funded grants ranging from a couple thousand dollars to more than $30, 000 a year. In places where they are available to all students regardless of income, such as Florida and Arizona, most of students using the funds were already in private or home school or were from affluent neighborhoods, an analysis by The Associated Press demonstrated.

In practice, the federal program departs from most state programs by not forcing students to leave public school to qualify for a scholarship. Although the Republican administration has not provided specific criteria for eligible expenses yet, public school students could employ the capital for tutoring or special education therapies.

Regulators say they have set up the program in a way that will create it easier for poor students to apply, proposing to let students apply proof of participation in a administration assistance program in lieu of providing income documentation. Foster children would not have to provide any income verification when they apply, authorities stated.

Experiences with school choice scholarships in other states have shown barriers to using the programs go beyond paperwork hurdles. Plenty of families often do not know scholarship programs exist. Federal authorities have not stated how they would tell taxpayers and students regarding the scholarships. How the scholarship and tax credit will work.

Taxpayers will have the chance to donate to a scholarship program in a participating state, even if they do not live there, starting Jan. 1. Individuals can donate up to $1, 700 and receive a federal tax credit for the same amount in exchange. Federal authorities propose a couple filing jointly could provide as much as double that amount.

Scholarship organizations in each state would decide how much to grant to each child who applies, depending on available funds and student need. Children could qualify if they are in elementary through high school and their families earn up to three times the area's median income. For a family of four in Houston, for example, that equates to more than $300, 000.

Scholarship recipients could employ their funding to pay for religious or private school tuition, homeschooling costs, tutoring and special education therapies, books, computers and other expenses connected to enrollment or attendance, according to office-holders at the Treasury Department.

At least 30 states have opted in, and more may sign up.

States could not turn to laws or regulations to narrow the uses for the scholarships or the type of organization that can grant them, federal authorities stated. But states can choose whether to participate in the program.

As of mid-September these states are in for 2027: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to the most recent Treasury Department list.

More than two dozen states have yet to say what they will do. In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has been supportive, and the state is projected to sign up.

Governors deciding whether to participate face plenty of competing objectives and interests. There is the opportunity to bring significant new education funds to students who need extra backing, such as tutoring or extra speech therapy that their public school does not provide. Meanwhile, sizeable scholarship programs in states such as Florida and Arizona have accelerated a growing enrollment crisis in public schools.

Even so, the federal program is projected to bring taxpayer capital for private school tuition to a number of states that have yet to embrace vouchers or education savings accounts. Education advocates disagree on whether states should participate.

In Massachusetts – a state with historically robust public school funding, caps on charter school expansion and no taxpayer funding for private school tuition – education advocates on both sides are lobbying the governor to take a stand and pushing the public to register their opinion.

Notably, the state's association of school superintendents opposes the idea that districts should take advantage of the program by creating their own nonprofits to accept donations and distribute scholarships. Plenty of sizeable city school districts around the country already have their own foundations. In Massachusetts, where every municipality has its own district, most of the more than 300 school systems have no such entity.

"Districts face a significant disadvantage compared to the private school networks that already have elaborate fundraising and scholarship infrastructure in place, " reads the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents' position paper. The group remarked requiring families to apply for scholarships and, in numerous cases, prove income eligibility were "bureaucratic hurdles that will certainly leave behind our most vulnerable families."

On the other side, former Boston City Councilor and former public schoolteacher Annissa Essaibi George has argued Boston Public Schools faces severe budget shortfalls and needs new streams of income.

And besides, she argued in an op-ed published in a neighborhood newspaper: "Massachusetts taxpayers will be eligible to take advantage of this program whether the governor opts in or not. The only question is whether those dollars come back to Massachusetts children, or instead flow to students in states that moved faster."

After donations from taxpayers pick up, the IRS and the Treasury Department predict the program will direct almost $26 billion into as numerous 2.2 million scholarships each year, in just a few years.

For context, the federal tax-credit scholarship program was signed into law last year by President Donald Trump as part of his signature tax breaks and spending cuts bill. The public has 60 days to comment on the Treasury Department's proposed regulations. Regarding the Author(s). Bianca Vasquez Toness, Associated Press. News Frank Corder September 29, 2026.

Governor Reeves, former State Supt. Wright tell Mississippi's education success story in new book.

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In short, federal scholarship for private school and homeschooling opening to most kids in is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.