BJC, other faith leaders and religious organizations tell Congress to reject a proposed school voucher tax scheme
By Don Byrd and Israel Igualate
Hundreds of faith leaders and dozens of faith organizations — including BJC — are raising their collective voices this week against dangerous new legislation that would create a national school voucher system. Their urgent message? Keep the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) out of the budget.
“Educational choice for children” is a wholesome-sounding title, but it masks a massive tax scheme designed to enrich private schools, many of which are religious, with taxpayer funds while building a tax shelter for wealthy donors. In a letter to Congress, BJC and others explained how it works:
[ECCA] would allow individuals to receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit in exchange for giving money to an intermediary organization, which then would funnel that money to private school tuition and homeschooling costs. Even worse, wealthy people could actually make money by offloading stocks to avoid capital gains tax while also receiving a tax credit for both the value of the stock and their realized gains. This would essentially create a direct transfer of taxpayer funds away from the public trust and into private schools.
This bill isn’t about children. It’s about power and profit. And it blurs the line further between religion and government — religious instruction is best left to our houses of worship and other faith-based institutions. That’s why BJC and others are telling Congress no. No to vouchers. No to backdoor legislative deals. No to turning a misguided education proposal into a tax shelter for the wealthy.
This is an urgent message now because of the threat that ECCA may be included in the budget reconciliation process. Instead of an open debate over the dangers of the bill, legislators have proposed hiding ECCA in the budget, where it would not get a fair hearing. When given the choice, Americans consistently reject school vouchers and support public education. They deserve to know about and be heard on any effort to create a massive federal voucher system and tax credit scheme.
Dangers to religious liberty like this one are hard to repeal once they are enacted; that’s why those who believe in religious freedom for all — and believe in public schools that serve all students without regard to religion are working hard to stop it in its tracks now. And it needs to be stopped.
Make no mistake. This bill forces the public to subsidize private faith. It asks a single mom in rural Tennessee to pay taxes that go to a religious school in another state she’ll never see. It asks a veteran in Kansas to fund theology he doesn’t share. It turns believers into beggars for federal dollars — and churches into clients of the state. That’s not freedom. That’s dependence.
And while the big donors make out like bandits, everyone else gets left behind. Our public schools — where 90 percent of American kids learn — lose funding. Our charities and houses of worship get elbowed out by tax-advantaged voucher schemes. Fewer donations go to food banks, shelters, and congregations because the tax code tells people: give to private school vouchers instead.
