Will the ECCA school choice bill be the promised lifeline for families drowning in tuition?

A proposed federal bill, if passed, would enable parents to receive taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay for tuition costs, the newest development in the ongoing national school choice effort. And for Orthodox families, for whom school choice isn’t just about accountability, productive competition, or academic outcomes, but a financial lifeline, the bill’s passage could be a vital step in transforming the tuition landscape

Washington, D.C. has always been a fixture in the news cycle, the seat of global power commanding the world’s attention. Yet ever since the President Trump and the Republican juggernaut retook control of the White House and Congress with its stunning trifecta in the November federal elections, the resulting upheaval in national politics and the international order has thrust the city into the spotlight like never before. Even the nation’s media corps, accustomed to a breathless news cycle, is struggling to keep pace.

YET

beyond the political spectacle dominating the headlines, a quieter yet crucial battle is playing out — one that could, for the first time in American history, bring real tuition relief to millions of parents. The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) is a proposed federal bill that, if passed, would provide tax credits for donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations, enabling parents and students to receive taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay for educational expenses, including private school tuition costs.  For many of the bill’s supporters, ECCA is another development in the wider school choice effort: More choice equals improved academic outcomes, increased parental satisfaction, and a more diverse and competitive education landscape.

For Orthodox Jewish families, in which tuition bills often rival mortgage payments, school choice isn’t just another wonkish policy debate about accountability or educational doctrine. It is a financial lifeline. Yeshivah tuition for a single student can be in the tens of thousands and there are no signs of those numbers coming down anytime soon. With many families juggling multiple such tuitions, the financial strain is staggering. Given ECCA’s annual allocation of ten billion (that’s billion, with a “b”) dollars, the act’s passage can create a sustainable pipeline for tuition assistance and transform the tuition landscape for frum families.

As budget negotiations ramp up and President Trump presses congressional Republicans to present him with a “big, beautiful bill,” the Agudah is working overtime with its coalition partners to ensure that ECCA is prioritized and included in the final package. The Agudah organized a two-hundred-person mission to converge on Capitol Hill this Wednesday, April 2, to advocate for ECCA. During the mission, business owners, community members, and askanim from around the country will hold dozens of meetings with Congressional leaders to impress upon them the importance and impact that ECCA could have.

Breakdown of a Bill

So what, exactly, is ECCA and how does it work?

Like all legislation, it’s a complex bill, replete with legal jargon and multi-digit cross-references to the Internal Revenue Code. Rabbi A.D. Motzen, who serves as the Agudah’s national director of government affairs, is widely acknowledged as one of the country’s leading experts on the topic. Over the last year, he’s presented on the bill hundreds of times, to audiences ranging from Agudah conventions, Torah Umesorah functions, webinars for community leaders, yeshivah summits, media interviews, intimate gatherings of high-level policymakers in marble-lined congressional offices, and fellow shul-goers seeking the inside scoop after Shacharis.

Prior to the mission, Rabbi Motzen broke down the bill, which unlike some voucher programs, does not provide direct government funding to private schools. “Under the ECCA, the federal government will make ten billion dollars in tax credits available to individuals and businesses that donate to nonprofit scholarship organizations. Families can apply to these organizations for scholarships to help pay for educational expenses, including private school tuition,” he says.

On a more granular level, the bill is best explained divided into three separate aspects — the donor, the organization handling donations, and the recipients.