As the school year begins, new federal and state financial aid programs are opening fresh opportunities for Christian school students and homeschoolers.

On Monday, President Trump held a back-to-school event in the Rose Garden with Education Secretary Linda McMahon along with students, parents, and educators in which he highlighted a number of initiatives that his administration is rolling out that give American families expanded opportunities to choose the type of schooling they believe is best for their children. They include an Education Freedom Tax Credit of up to $1,700 and expanded 529 education savings accounts.

“From the very beginning of our country, Americans have understood that there’s no job more important than teaching our children to become happy, healthy, proud, productive, and flourishing citizens,” the president remarked. He went on to highlight the intensely controversial pro-transgender policies that infiltrated public schools under the Biden administration, noting that only 30% of K-12 students were proficient in math and reading.

“Under the Trump administration, we’re systematically ending every single one of these radical-left betrayals, and we’re putting the parents back in charge,” the president emphasized. “They’re the ones that love our children. They’re the ones that should be in charge.”

The expanded school choice initiatives come amid a revolution in U.S. education as a multitude of states have enacted education savings account (ESA) programs over the last decade and a half that allow families to use education-destined taxpayer dollars for whatever education-related expense they desire, including private school tuition, tutoring, online programs, textbooks or other instructional materials, and more. So far, 18 states have established 21 ESA programs.

And with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, the federal government began its own Education Freedom Tax Credit program, which experts say is “revolutionary.”

“The Education Freedom Tax Credit really is a tremendous revolutionary opportunity for education in this country,” P. George Tryfiates, vice president for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), contended during “Washington Watch” Tuesday. “What it is is very simple. A donor gives money to a scholarship granting organization up to $1,700 and receives a tax credit on their federal taxes for that gift. The scholarship granting organization takes that money and provides scholarships to kids for whatever private option or public option they feel is best for their education. So that’s a tremendous value for everyone, and it will open the floodgates for all kinds of experiments and give parents access to Christian education or whatever other kinds of education they feel is best for their child.”

Tryfiates went on to address critics of the program, who claim that it inhibits federal funding of schools. “[It] doesn’t have anything to do with federal funding, the federal budget, and your state budget. Those are all going to stay the same for public education. This is just private dollars funding private opportunity, and those private dollars can add up. And I think Christian schools are excited about it. So are every other kinds of school. And even today we’re seeing that the public schools may have a little bit of interest and they can also participate.”

Tryfiates further acknowledged that while the program will likely be highly beneficial for families, one aspect of it needs to be monitored closely. As the bill was being negotiated in Congress, he explained, “the Senate removed those strong religious liberty protections for parents, CEOs, and schools. So now we’re just going to have to make sure that regulations are accurate and do the best that they can in order to protect anyone that wants to participate in that program. … [W]e want to make sure we have the full freedom to operate as authentically Christian as we possibly can.”

In addition to the new tax credit, Tryfiates also highlighted another White House initiative aimed at helping homeschooling families — the expansion of 529 college savings accounts.

“[This] allow[s] for qualified expenses for homeschoolers … giving [them the] opportunity to purchase things like curriculum, tutoring, [and] those kinds of things,” he explained. “… The great thing about 529 savings is that the federal capital gain on the savings is zero, so you don’t have to pay a tax. So that’s tremendous. It also had a tremendous expansion for private schools generally. Originally, the K-12 tuition was a qualified expense up to $10,000, and now that’s been doubled to $20,000. So if you have a kid in a Christian school or other private school, you can save up to $20,000 and use that money for tuition there.”

“You have to be careful that the state benefits may or may not apply if the state has not brought its own laws in line with the federal, because the states also give some benefits — many of them do for saving money in a 529 plan,” Tryfiates added. “Fundamentally, it’s a federal program. You don’t get federal tax on your capital gains, and that’s good [in] all 50 states. So [it’s a] tremendous opportunity for homeschoolers now."