Doing Justice While Making Catholic Schools Affordable

Before joining what once imagined itself the world’s greatest deliberative body, U.S. senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) was a decorated naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut with four space shuttle missions to his credit. Now, like approximately 80 percent of his senatorial colleagues, Sen. Kelly looks in the mirror in the morning and sees a future president. Before he takes the plunge, however, I hope Sen. Kelly finds the political courage to match the physical courage that won him two Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Recently, Sen. Kelly got twenty-nine fellow senators to support his bill to repeal the federal tax credit scholarship program that was created in 2025 and will come into effect next year. A Wall Street Journal editorial quoted Sen. Kelly’s claim that scholarships funded by this program will take “money out of public schools and giv[e] to private ones.” That is false. It was also a rather blatant pander to the teachers’ unions—arguably America’s most reactionary social force, but organizations whose ground game and financial help Kelly surely wants if he makes a run for the White House in the 2028 election cycle.

So, what does this new federal tax credit scholarship program actually do?

Details may be found at the website of the Invest in Education Foundation, but here’s the gist of the program.

If you owe federal income tax in the 2027 tax year, and if you donate that same year to a qualified nonprofit scholarship-granting organization, you can reduce your federal income tax liability by the amount of the donation (for up to $1,700), while supporting an organization that helps children attend schools of their parents’ choice, including Catholic schools. This 100 percent tax credit, in other words, costs you nothing extra. You either pay Uncle Sam or you donate to a nonprofit scholarship-granting organization and take the tax credit on your federal return (or reduce your tax withholding accordingly during the year).

Each state must “opt in” to the program, and if it does, its governor must provide the U.S. government an annual list of qualified scholarship-granting organizations in that state. The list will be made public so taxpayers can know where to direct their contributions, and organizations like the Invest in Education Foundation will also provide taxpayers with the necessary information. According to the legislation, students whose families earn up to 300 percent of the median family income will be eligible for these tax-credit-supported scholarships—which should help many families who now find Catholic elementary and secondary education a strain on the family exchequer. 

While Catholic school enrollment has been dropping nationally (in part because of demographics but also because of affordability issues), states with programs similar to this federal initiative have seen an increase in Catholic school enrollment. According to the Invest in Education Foundation, Catholic school attendance in Florida is reported to have increased by 15 percent since 2015, while Arizona and North Carolina, two other states with strong school choice programs, have seen 8 percent increases. The federal program could, according to some estimates, double Catholic school enrollment over the next decade.

But that will take mobilization.

State Catholic Conferences must make it known to their governors that an opt-in is a basic matter of social justice, empowering parents to choose a Catholic education if they think that’s best for their children, including children with special needs. Pastors ought to talk up “opt-in” in their parishes, both in states that have not yet done so and in states that have, as pressures are being mounted to rescind state participation; parish bulletins are a good vehicle for getting the word out. Catholic parents and grandparents—indeed all U.S. Catholics who understand that the Catholic school system provides an essential public service, especially in the country’s most economically disadvantaged areas—should let their governor and state legislators know that they want their state to opt in. And, following Mr. Dooley’s principle that “politics ain’t beanbag,” it would not be amiss to remind elected officials that failing to opt in will carry a political cost.                 

American elementary and secondary education can do—must do—much, much better in preparing a competent citizenry capable of making a democratic republic work in the twenty-first century. Scholarships funded by donations that also generate these federal income tax credits can help support essential educational reforms, as the excellence of Catholic schools can incentivize state-run schools to do better—but only if those Catholic schools survive and serve a broad population. The school choice made possible by this federal tax credit scholarship program is a genuine social justice issue, and U.S. Catholics should bend every effort to ensure that every state opts in.

George Weigel’s column “The Catholic Difference” is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.