One Big, Beautiful Bill “Choice” Program Would Federalize Private Schools

Private schools, beware! If not removed from the legislation in the U.S. Senate before passage, a little-noticed provision in the GOP-backed “Big, Beautiful Bill” could threaten the independence of private schools and force them to obey expensive and draconian federal mandates.

The measure may represent the camel’s nose under the tent, with more regulations and controls likely to follow if not stopped. And it could end up making private schools more like their government-run counterparts, policy analysts and critics warned The Newman Report.

The legislation, approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 12 despite a handful of Republican defections, seeks to allow taxpayers to divert some of their tax liability to non-profit organizations that grant scholarships to private schools. Taxpayers would receive “tax credits” under the legislation to help fund “school choice” vouchers for parents.

However, as the bill makes clear, accepting those federally backed scholarship funds would force private schools to obey various federal educations statutes. For now, the provisions deal with admitting students with disabilities, which critics warn could be a serious hardship. But in the future, the door could be open for more dramatic interventions, too.  

In particular, on pages 716 and 717, the Trump-backed “One Big, Beautiful Bill” deals with “tax credits for contributions” to what the legislation refers to as “scholarship granting organizations,” or SGOs. These organizations would give money to parents for homeschooling or private schools. But then, the catch: It makes clear that federal dictates would apply.

“No amount paid to an elementary or secondary school shall be considered a qualified elementary or secondary education expense for the purposes of this section unless such school demonstrates that it maintains a policy whereby its admissions standards do not take into account whether the student seeking enrollment has a current individualized education plan, nor takes into account that the student requires equitable services for a learning disability, and if a student does have such an individualized education plan, the school abides by the plan’s terms and provides services outlined therein.”

In short, to be eligible for the funds, private schools must adhere to a 1975 federal statute known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA for short. The measure lays out requirements for how government schools that receive federal funds must deal with students diagnosed with disabilities.

Under the statute, all students with a disability must be provided with what the feds call a “Free Appropriate Public Education,” or FAPE. These students are given an “Individual Education Plan,” or IEP, that provides a tailored education for each child. The ostensible goal is to make sure disabled children — or those misdiagnosed with a disability thanks to financial incentives — get what federal policymakers think they need to learn.

Forcing cash-strapped private schools to comply with the byzantine federal regulatory system governing students with disabilities, though, will prove to be a crushing burden to many, experts told The Newman Report. It will also open the door to more federal “mental health” funding for real and imagined disabilities, thereby bringing the dangerous federally backed programs and strings into private education, too.   

Lending credence to the idea that this will open the floodgates of even more federal “mental health” funding to Big Pharma via private schools is the fact that the main cheerleader for it in the Senate is U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy. Cassidy is the same Big Pharma-funded lawmaker who almost torpedoed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services due to Kennedy’s concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

The Newman Report reached out to multiple experts, lawmakers, policy analysts, and activists about these concerns. All of them, including very vocal advocates of tax-funded “school choice” programs and even some actively involved in pushing this particular “school choice” measure, expressed grave concerns about the provision in question.

Many of the sources consulted on the issue requested anonymity to discuss the issues freely, especially with active and highly sensitive negotiations taking place in the U.S. Senate. One pro-“school choice” source involved in the process said the disabilities provision was added in by a single member of the U.S. House as a condition for his support of the bill.

One expert who reviewed the language in the bill expressed concerns about the use of the term “homeschool.” “Homeschoolers need to be leery of any federal law that uses the term ‘homeschool,’” explained Carolyn Martin, advisor to and former director of government relations for Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC). “Doing so without defining what they mean leaves the interpretation up to an administrative state that loves to restrict freedom.”

She had other warnings, too. “Furthermore, homeschooling parents should adamantly oppose any bill tethering funding to home education,” added Martin, who has been working for years to protect homeschool freedom. “Government funding always comes with restrictions to freedom. At a minimum, the tax credits in the One Big Beautiful Bill will lead to a de facto national registry of homeschoolers and maintain the federal tenacles in education.”

Another policy analyst and educational liberty activist who examined the bill described the tax credits and the federal statutes as the “control mechanism” for forcing private schools to comply with various federal mandates. This will eventually result in expanding Medicaid into private schools and homeschooling, potentially bankrupting many institutions.

Eventually, it will also pave the way for turning once-private schools into “full-service community schools,” where government takes over everything from dental health and mental health to nutrition and more from parents. With GOP support, the Obama administration made major progress on that agenda nationwide in 2015 with the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA).

There are multiple efforts underway right now to have the controversial disabilities provision removed in the U.S. Senate before the bill is ultimately passed. Trump and lawmakers are hoping to have the enormous bill on the president’s desk before the end of July, though. There are numerous other areas of contention that are getting much more attention. And multiple Republicans have spoken out against it.

Leftists and proponents of the failed government-school monopoly, meanwhile, are outraged because they see the whole program as a way to “defund” government “education” and help the rich pay less taxes. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy chief Amy Hanauer called the measure an “unprecedented giveaway that would enrich the wealthiest people.”

The real danger, of course, is not that government schools will get less money. Just as critics have been warning, the establishment is determined to bring private schools under government control — and “free” taxpayer money, as called for by the United Nations education agency, appears to be the mechanism that will be used to bring it about if Americans are not careful.

All those concerned about these issues should consider reaching out to their U.S. senators today.

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