Betsy DeVos announced a $5 billion school choice proposal Thursday, pitching a national tax credit scholarship program that would allow parents to send their children to the public – or private – K-12 school of their choice.
But the proposal faces a steep uphill battle in Congress, where Democrats now control the House of Representatives and even the more moderate Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have been wary of school choice policies that originate at the federal level.
“What we’re talking about is a new federal tax credit,” a senior Department of Education official said Wednesday evening. “This is an opportunity for states to take advantage of scholarship money that would be made available for them for programs they design.”
