As the nation soon celebrates its 250th birthday, it is worth recalling that religious freedom and practice were vital to the birth of our constitutional republic and are necessary to sustain it. The various school choice laws in states, along with the new law, are a growing confirmation that the government respects the free exercise of religion by allowing the choice of religious schools by parents for their children.
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This federal law, effective in 2027, has the potential to transform K-12 schooling to a high-quality, more competitive system, and help sustain religious freedom and practice in America. It will financially empower parents with potentially billions of dollars in scholarship opportunities to direct their children’s education in any school setting, public, charter, private, religious, or homeschool.
By making more parents effective “customers” of K-12 education for their children, this law will expand options for how and where their children are educated. No longer will parents have to subject their children to baleful influences in an educational setting that undermines their faith, while parents also will be in a stronger position to influence schools to improve quality and respect their faith.
Scholarships will be funded by private contributions from individuals to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) that serve students in K-12 education. Donors will receive a 100 percent credit against their federal income tax liability for a maximum $1,700 per year — a huge financial incentive that will accumulate billions of new scholarship dollars for use in elementary and secondary education.
This July 4th, represents another historic milestone as the 200th anniversary of the deaths of the second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson — providentially, each dying on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Both these founders of our nation had plenty to say about religious freedom.
President Adams understood that religious practice was integral to the success of constitutional government. In October 1798, he penned a letter to the Massachusetts Militia that contained this admonition:
We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
In January 1802, President Jefferson wrote his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, quoting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reaffirmed that religious organizations were protected against government interference, rather than the misapplied claim that religion was to be walled off from public life:
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[The] legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” thus building a wall of eternal separation between Church & State.
Beyond improving academic quality and parental satisfaction, this federal tax credit
Recent Supreme Court case law further captures this crucial balance. For example, in Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue (2020), which upheld that state’s tax credit scholarship program, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court, “the Establishment Clause is not offended when religious observers and organizations benefit from neutral government programs.”
Indeed, the federal tax credit scholarship will make access to religious schools more affordable for lower-income families nationwide who desire that option for their children, and enhance access to educational goods and services for children in public schools. Importantly, the federal government remains neutral in parents’ educational decisions for their children.
One caveat in this federal scholarship law is that governors must decide whether their state participates to benefit their resident students with the new scholarships. Thus far, 30 states have “opted in” while 20 have not. Several governors in the latter category are waiting for the U.S. Treasury Department to issue rules and guidance on the new program.
It is vital for people of faith and for religious organizations to take full advantage of this law and help it succeed by (1) urging governors of every state to “opt-in” to allow the program to benefit their resident students; (2) ensuring SGOs are established and connected to parochial schools; and (3) spreading the word to donors at every income level to contribute to SGOs to award scholarships to children to attend those schools.
The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit law will financially empower exponentially more parents to access the highest quality, most suitable education of their choice for their children, including faith-based schools that will enable religious freedom to thrive. This will better prepare succeeding generations of young people to know and respect our nation’s constitutional foundations, the rule of law, and the democratic process.
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Peter Murphy is Vice President at the Invest in Education Foundation.
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