Watch out. There’s a new school voucher scam — er, proposal — on the horizon, and it’s right out of the Project 2025 playbook. The first step is already underway: break up the Department of Education. While eliminating the agency would require an act of Congress, President Trump is committed to the goal and is reportedly preparing an executive order to initiate its dismantling.
The department primarily oversees the distribution of federal funds to public schools, manages college financial aid and federal student loans, enforces civil rights laws in education, and administers programs for students with disabilities.
“The history of the Education Department is as a civil rights agency, the place that ensures that students with disabilities get the services they need, that English-learners get the help they need,” John B. King Jr., who served as education secretary during the Obama administration, told reporters this week. “Taking that away harms students and families.”
Project 2025 advocates for dismantling the Education Department, criticizing it for promoting “racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda.” The document argues that schools should prioritize parental input over what it calls “leftist indoctrination” and questions the effectiveness of federal education spending over the past 45 years. It calls for eliminating the department and returning control of education to state and local governments.
The Republican Party has been trying to take down the department since inception. Just two months after the Education Department began operating in 1980, Republicans adopted a policy platform urging Congress to dismantle it.
In fact, opposition to the department has been an article of faith in the GOP for decades. Both Former President Ronald Reagan and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich attempted to abolish it.
When Texas Gov. Rick Perry famously forgot the third federal department he wanted to eliminate in a 2011 presidential primary debate — the famous “oops” moment — he had no trouble naming by rote the Department of Education as a target for elimination.
Last year, despite broad Republican support, a proposal to dismantle the Education Department failed in the GOP-led House, with 161 Republicans backing the measure while 60 opposed it.
Trump’s pretext for eliminating the Education Department is closely tied to his efforts to demolish diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government. A draft executive order circulating in Washington directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to terminate any remaining DEI initiatives. His campaign website also heavily emphasizes opposition to gender and transgender issues, mentioning them in eight of his ten principles for “great schools.”
“This is a counterrevolution against a hostile and nihilistic bureaucracy,” said Christopher F. Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank and anti-DEI crusader.
Which brings us to step two: redirect billions of federal Department of Education dollars to private schools.
The school voucher movement has been gaining traction in conservative states, successfully channeling public funds into private education by allowing tax dollars to follow students. In Texas, where voucher plans have faced repeated roadblocks from a coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans, lawmakers now seem set to approve a program after Gov. Greg Abbott intervened in GOP primaries, working to replace anti-voucher Republicans with those who back the initiative. Now, proponents see their strongest opportunity yet to expand the initiative nationwide.
In January, Trump issued an executive order instructing the Education Department to explore ways to redirect existing federal funds into voucher programs. “Parents want and deserve the best education for their children,” the order stated. “But too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school.”
With backing from the White House, congressional Republicans are pushing a new tax credit that would funnel billions annually into school voucher programs—not just in right-leaning states but across the country.
What sets this proposal apart is an unprecedented financial incentive: Taxpayers who contribute to voucher programs would receive a full refund of their donation when filing taxes. This dollar-for-dollar tax credit would far surpass the benefits of deductions for donations to churches, hospitals, food banks, and other charities, and amounts to a direct federal subsidy for religious indoctrination since about three quarters of private schools in the country are religiously affiliated.
Under the proposed federal plan, families with incomes up to three times the median for their area would be eligible for vouchers. This would amount to over $450,000 annually in Washington, D.C., or over $216,000 in Texas.
This bill is the second major attempt to push a tax credit plan in Congress. In 2017, during Trump’s first term, a similar plan was proposed but ultimately excluded despite Education Secretary Betsy DeVos lobbying for it. The Heritage Foundation and other conservatives opposed it at the time, citing concerns about complicating the tax code, increasing federal involvement in education, and requiring significant spending.
“A new federal tax-credit scholarship program would make private schools increasingly dependent on federal funds … greatly expanding Washington’s reach into K-12 education generally, and private school education, specifically,” wrote Lindsey Burke, who directs education policy at Heritage. While Burke initially opposed the plan, she has since shifted her stance and now supports a school choice tax credit in the conservative Project 2025 plan.
The proposed plan would be a first in federal policy, as no other donations are eligible for a full 100% federal tax credit, according to tax experts.
The plan would allow both individuals and corporations to qualify for this tax credit. Individuals can claim the credit on donations up to $5,000 or 10 percent of their adjusted gross income, whichever is higher. For corporations, the credit applies up to 5 percent of taxable income.
“There’s nothing like this at the federal level,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “This isn’t typical tax policy.”
Typically, charitable donations come with a tax deduction, where both the taxpayer and the government share the cost. However, in this case, the government would cover the entire amount.
Another concern lies in a provision of the bill allowing taxpayers to claim a tax credit for donations of stock, as well as cash. Donating stocks would allow taxpayers to avoid paying capital gains taxes on any earnings. This means donors who contribute stock to a scholarship organization would not only avoid capital gains taxes but also receive the full value of the stock as a tax credit.
So, if someone bought $1,000 worth of stock and later sold it for $5,000, the sale would typically trigger capital gains taxes on the $4,000 profit. However, by donating the stock to a scholarship organization, the taxpayer would avoid those taxes and instead receive a $5,000 tax credit.
A report from Davis’s group, set to be released next week, projects that a $10 billion annual tax credit would cost the federal government $134 billion over the next decade, factoring in the loss of revenue from capital gains taxes.
Davis predicts that wealthy individuals with no particular interest in vouchers might be encouraged to donate stock to voucher programs in order to capitalize on both tax incentives.
Dan Hungerman, an economics professor at the University of Notre Dame and expert on charitable giving, also believes this plan offers an unusually strong incentive not found elsewhere in the tax code.
“You’re double-dipping,” he explained. “You avoid the tax and get a benefit for the donation.”
Private school vouchers are often sold to the public as a way to benefit underprivileged and disabled students, then they gradually evolve into programs that benefit the wealthy. But, at three times the median income, they’re not even pretending anymore. The voucher scam has gone national, and with the Trump administration’s “flood-the-zone” strategy, they may just succeed in slipping this one past voucher opponents.
