Private K-12 Schools NAICS 611110

Jun 5, 2025 - Proposed Federal Voucher System Advances In US Congress

• The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reconciliation bill passed by the US House of Representatives includes a federal tax credit voucher that would provide taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay for tuition at private schools and for home-schooled students. Th proposal would make vouchers available to students in every state. The vouchers would be financed through charitable contributions from individuals to entities known as Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO). In return, donors would receive a full federal tax credit equal to the amount of their contribution. The SGO would allocate the donated funds as scholarships that students could apply toward various educational expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks, and homeschooling materials. The program would cap total tax credits at $5 billion annually from 2026 through 2029 and would mark the first nationwide, federally funded tax credit initiative for private school education. It would also allow those who donate corporate stocks to avoid capital gains tax on those donations.
• President Trump signed an executive order instructing US Education Secretary Linda McMahon to start dismantling the US Department of Education. The executive order states that "Ultimately, the Department of Education’s main functions can, and should, be returned to the States." The US Department of Education had announced earlier the layoff of 1,300 staffers, nearly half of its workforce. Education Secretary McMahon described the layoffs as a “significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”. Preliminary figures cited by USA Today show that the Federal Student Aid Office, which handles student loan and financial aid disbursement, and the Office for Civil Rights, which protects students and teachers from discrimination, will be most affected by the layoffs.

• There are 34 states with private school choice programs in early 2025, according to FutureED. Twelve states have passed laws allowing any student, regardless of income or need, to apply for government funding to subsidize their private, religious, or, in some cases, homeschool education. About 569,000 students in the eight states where such universal programs were active in 2023-24 received public subsidies for private schooling, according to FurureED. Students in states with active programs represented 55% of all US students attending private school with public funding in 2024, at a cost to taxpayers of about $4 billion, according to FutureEd. About 40% of the nation’s 50 million elementary and secondary students will be eligible for public subsidies when all current private school choice programs are active.
• Private K-12 school industry employment has rebounded from pandemic-era lows and remained above pre-pandemic levels in early 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private K-12 school revenue is forecast to grow at a 3.86% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. Sources of revenue for private schools include tuition, private grants, donations, fundraisers, and income from endowments.