The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed in July includes a landmark provision offering dollar-for-dollar tax credits to individual taxpayers who donate to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs)—representing the first nationwide school-choice initiative. Yet the provision that emerged from congressional sausage-making is very different from what its drafters intended. Notably, it requires states to opt in to participating in the initiative, rather than mandating it from coast to coast. The final bill also no longer explicitly includes a strict prohibition on states imposing their own requirements on SGOs if those states choose to opt in.

Policy wonks expect the Department of the Treasury to issue regulations in advance of the initiative’s launch in January 2027. We asked five school choice proponents to advise the treasury secretary on what those regulations should say.

Participating in the discussion are Jim Blew, cofounder of the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies; Jorge Elorza, CEO of Democrats for Education Reform; Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice; Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation; and Peter Murphy, senior adviser to the Invest in Education Coalition.

Rulemaking Must Resolve Ambiguities in Federal School Choice Law—and Fast

By Jim Blew