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US school-choice advocates are launching a $10 million-plus marketing campaign to push President Trump’s tax-credit-fueled initiative to create more student grants.
Taxpayers can contribute up to $1,700 individually or $3,400 for married couples filing jointly to a qualified scholarship-granting organization and then claim a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit under the Trump administration’s “Education Freedom Tax Credit” program beginning Jan. 1.
The contributions are supposed to then fund scholarships to help cover tuition, tutoring and other expenses for K-12 students attending public, charter and parochial schools, as well as homeschoolers.
The country’s teachers unions are opposed to the program, claiming it will somehow siphon taxpayer dollars from public schools — even though backers such as Dem New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have dismissed the notion.
ACE Scholarships — a national nonprofit that aims to provide funding to low-income families for such educational scholarships — is bankrolling the new ad campaign, dubbed “Make It Possible” and worth more than $10 million.
The group projects that the Trump initiative could generate up to $300 million in charitable donations for its organization — allowing it to fund roughly 75,000 scholarships for students during just the first year.
“The tax credit is the mechanism, but what motivates giving is our children’s futures,” said Norton Rainey, CEO of ACE Scholarships.
“ ‘Make It Possible’ is designed to remind Americans that educational opportunity can change the trajectory of a child’s life—helping them discover their potential and pursue a future that might otherwise be out of reach,’’ Rainey said.
“We have an important responsibility to help taxpayers understand that they now have the power to make those opportunities possible for millions of children.”
The ad campaign will run on television and audio streaming platforms, YouTube and other social-media entities including Meta and TikTok. The ads also will air during highly watched televised college football bowl games.
The campaign’s primary markets will include New York, Philadelphia, the District of Columbia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Kansas City, Orlando and Denver.
Students can only benefit from the federal program if governors decide to have their states participate.
Hochul has already opted the state into the federal program — which could potentially benefit 2.7 million students here — despite opposition from the teachers’ union.
Having New York in the program has been the top policy priority of coalitions representing parochial schools, including the Teach Coalition for Jewish schools or yeshivas and the New York Catholic Conference on behalf of their religious schools.
But leaders of the teachers’ unions and other public-school advocates — including the NAACP and the NYCLU — claim the program is a back-door privatization scheme aimed at siphoning taxpayer dollars from public schools.
Hochul disagreed, deciding New York would participate in the program because it benefits students from all schools — public and private — and saying it doesn’t take money away from public schools.
“I’ve been clear from the start that New York would participate in the federal scholarship tax credit program if, and only if, all schools and students, including those in our public schools, could benefit,” Hochul said regarding her decision.
“After a careful review of the federal regulations, we believe this program has the potential to bring millions of additional dollars to New York students and families without taking a single dollar from our state or local budgets …I’m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids. I look forward to working with education leaders across the state to make sure these resources reach students in every community.”