During his last week in office, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) gave wealthy taxpayers and private school families a big gift by making Virginia the first state to officially opt into President Trump’s federal school voucher program. The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) gives taxpayers dollar-for-dollar tax credits in exchange for donating to approved “scholarship granting organizations” (SGOs), which in turn award scholarships to pay for private school tuition.
That means tax dollars that would ordinarily go to the state can now be diverted into subsidizing private education, worsening an existing issue.
“Every state has the problem of not having the funding that they need to do a good job in schools,” Marianne Burke, Ph.D., Co-Founder of 4 Public Education, said. “We’re assuming that because there will be fewer kids in a public school and most public schools get state funding based on the number of students in their school, that they would get less funding.”
The ECCA was introduced in 2025 as its own bill, H.R. 833, which was later incorporated into Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and passed mostly along party lines. Just two Republicans—Reps. Brian K. Fitzpatrick (PA-1st Congressional District) and Thomas Massie (KY-4th Congressional District)—joined Democrats in voting against the bill.
US Representatives for Virginia Robert J. Wittman (R-1st Congressional District), Jennifer Kiggans (R-2nd Congressional District), John J. McGuire III (R-5th Congressional District), Ben Cline (R-6th Congressional District), and H. Morgan Griffith (R-9th Congressional District) voted in favor of the act—including the ECCA.
Problems with the ECCA
Education experts say the ECCA has several issues. First, Burke pointed out that every dollar an individual donates to an SGO to pay for private school tuition is a dollar they don’t pay in taxes.
“Anybody can give to that scholarship and reduce their taxes,” she said.
That leaves fewer Virginians to pay for everything the state needs, like roads, fire departments, and public education. With fewer taxpayers footing the bill, that means remaining taxpayers have to pay more to cover the same programs, or the state will have to cancel them altogether.
It’s similar to going out to dinner with several friends and deciding to split the bill equally, but then two friends decide not to chip in, so everyone else’s portion of the bill goes up.
This already happened in Arizona. In 2022, Arizona launched the largest school voucher program to date. Two years later, it cost the state $332 million, forcing Arizona to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from water infrastructure, highway expansion and repair, and community college funding.
Second, studies of school districts around the nation show that school voucher programs like the ECCA don’t improve student performance. Some examples include Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, and Washington DC. In every instance, voucher programs have shown no meaningful benefit to students, their families, or their communities.
“They don’t have to have certified teachers,” Burke said. “They can put anybody in there to teach the kids.”
Third, since private schools don’t receive federal funding, they aren’t subject to upholding civil rights laws.
Victims of the ECCA include Virginia’s most vulnerable kids
“They don’t have to take you based on race if they don’t want to,” Burke said. “If you’re disabled, they don’t have to take you because it might be more expensive to educate you.”
The ECCA takes it a step further. Section 5 of the original ECCA bill (H.R. 833 § 5) details “Organizational and Parental Autonomy,” stating specifically that the government is forbidden from interfering in private schools’ operations in any way.
This “non-interference clause” allows private schools to discriminate against applicants in the admissions process even if that discrimination is explicitly mentioned during the school’s interactions with applicants or their families.
It’s already been happening for decades. The disability rights protections, civil rights enforcement mechanisms, and constitutional protections that all students are guaranteed in public schools have repeatedly found to be lacking in private schools around the nation. North Carolina’s voucher program funds schools with explicit anti-LGBT policies. In 2014, UW-Milwaukee Professor Marc Levine found that voucher schools and non-district run charter schools were more segregated than Milwaukee public schools.
“Another reason [the far right] is trying to do this is for ideological purposes,” Burke said. “They want to basically indoctrinate students with their beliefs in religion and all that, which is a problem, because that’s not what public money should be used for.”
Burke addressed this in a recent blog for 4 Public Education.
She also pointed out that there are far fewer private schools in rural areas and that private schools don’t require bussing. This puts rural families and low-income families at disadvantages from the first day of school.
What’s next for vouchers in Virginia
Virginia already ranks 10th in the nation for K-12 education without participating in the ECCA, and again, private school voucher programs do not improve education performance or student outcomes. In fact, a study by Policy Studies Journal found that 41% of all private voucher schools operating in Milwaukee between 1991 and 2015 failed.
Every Republican US Representative for Virginia helped vote the ECCA into law and former Gov. Youngkin already opted Virginia into participating in it. How can the commonwealth protect itself from huge budgetary shortfalls like Arizona, increased student disparity based on income or community type, and stripped civil rights protections for students?
First, in January, Del. Dan Helmer (D-VA) introduced H.B. 359 to the House Education Committee. H.B. 359 would apply oversight and accountability rules to private schools that receive public funding, including those benefiting from the ECCA. It would also require private schools to adhere to nondiscrimination rules for students and allow state audits and penalties for violations of these rules.
H.B. 359 passed the House Education Committee but not the House Appropriations Committee. It is currently stalled and will be continued in the 2027 General Assembly. Virginia allows a bill to be continued in the next year of a two-year general assembly. Bills get continued for several reasons. No official reason has been given for H.B. 359’s continuation.
However, there are clues. Since it cleared the Education Committee by a 13-7 vote, it likely had enough support to survive policy review, but since it stalled in Appropriations it may have had issues answering fiscal and implementation questions in its current iteration.
Virginians can find and contact their state delegate to make their voices heard about H.B. 359.
Second, according to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states must opt into the ECCA on a yearly basis. The commonwealth’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, can choose to opt out of the program in future years. Her education plan specifically states that she will “reject efforts to divert funding from public education to pay for voucher programs.” It also says Spanberger will “make sure students in underserved communities, those with disabilities, and English language learners” have the resources that they need to maximize their academic careers.
This includes investing in public education.
“There is a lot of evidence that what is lacking, what would improve academic achievement, is funding,” Burke said.
The data backs her up. Reporting on Michigan public education, for example, has shown that increased public-school funding is directly tied to improved academic performance.Virginians can contact Spanberger’s office directly regarding the state’s future participation in the ECCA, and to let her know their views on supporting public schools.
