TLDR: Send a message to Wes Moore expressing support for the ECCA.
The recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act has a few provisions that are transformative (some less so), and one of them is the associated Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). This act provides a tax credit for private school tuition. Nothing in the federal tax code is simple, so I asked my accountant to provide a summary.
- Maximum credit: Up to $1,700 per individual taxpayer per year.
- Effective date: The tax credit is available for donations made on or after January 1, 2027, for the 2027 tax season.
- Non-refundable credit: The credit can reduce your federal tax liability down to zero, but it will not generate a refund.
- Carryforward: Any unused credit can be carried forward for up to five years.
- State participation: A taxpayer can only claim the credit if they donate to a qualified SGO (Scholarship-Granting Organizations) in a state that has opted into the program.
The key here is that individual states must opt into this program. Maryland has yet to ratify participation in this program and submit a list of SGOs.
Already the entrenched players in Big Ed are filing their objections, such as those in a pathetically partisan piece in Maryland Matters.
The tax credit will accelerate a mass exodus of parents from public schools—Yes, there are plenty of parents who want out of the public schools. The fact that parents want out but cannot leave shows the level of coercion the public schools are inflicting on us.
Leaving public schools to students who are mainly poor and of color—There are plenty, plenty of underserved students who want out of the public schools. They do not need to be left behind. Granting those underserved families full-tuition school vouchers frees them from their failing schools; denying them school vouchers traps those families in our own school district that is already red-lined.
The tax credits will further erode the separation of church and state—We already have anti-Semitic and progressive teachers and principals who are insulting their own students. Our tax dollars are being spent on that belief system, so it’s difficult to argue why spending tax dollars in a Catholic school is any different. (I would argue that Catholic schools are by far more tolerant than our public schools.)
While the tax credits will be paid out of federal funds, those funds could be better spent on public schools—Nobody wants the public schools and the teachers’ unions that run them. Since the 1970s American schoolchildren have been betrayed by their public schools, particularly those from underserved families. Throwing money at them will only further entrench Big Ed with no improved outcomes.
ECCA is not perfect: opt-in states can designate which private schools are eligible for the tax credit, and that leads to continued manipulation by the teachers’ unions and boards of education. Nevertheless, let’s take our victories as they come.
Call to Action
Let’s get Maryland enrolled in the ECCA. Send a message to Governor Wes Moore at his contact form. Here is a suggested message.
I’m writing to express support for Maryland’s participation in the Educational Choice for Children Act. Our state’s children, particularly the underserved, have been denied the opportunity of a private education that only our wealthy neighbors can afford. Participation in the ECCA will give both students and teachers access to higher performing educational experiences.
