School-Choice Group Launches $10 Million Ad Blitz to Boost Trump's Student Grant Initiative

A coalition of school-choice advocates has initiated a marketing campaign valued at over $10 million to promote President Trump's "Education Freedom Tax Credit" program. This initiative, set to begin January 1, allows taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for contributing up to $1,700 for individuals or $3,400 for married couples filing jointly to qualified scholarship-granting organizations.

The contributions are intended to fund scholarships covering tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses for K-12 students. These scholarships can be used for public, charter, parochial schools, and homeschooling.

ACE Scholarships, a national nonprofit focused on providing educational funding to low-income families, is spearheading the advertising effort under the slogan "Make It Possible." The group projects that the Trump administration's program could generate approximately $300 million in charitable donations for their organization in its first year, potentially funding around 75,000 scholarships.

"The tax credit is the mechanism, but what motivates giving is our children’s futures," stated Norton Rainey, CEO of ACE Scholarships. He added that the campaign aims to educate Americans about their ability to facilitate educational opportunities for millions of children, which could alter a child's life trajectory.

The ad campaign will be broadcast across television, audio streaming platforms, YouTube, and social media, including Meta and TikTok. It will also air during college football bowl games. Key markets targeted include New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Kansas City, Orlando, and Denver.

For students to benefit, state governors must opt their states into the program. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has already confirmed the state's participation, a move that could potentially impact 2.7 million students in the state. This decision has been a priority for coalitions representing parochial schools in New York, such as the Teach Coalition for Jewish schools and the New York Catholic Conference.

However, the program faces opposition from teachers' unions and other public-school advocacy groups, including the NAACP and the NYCLU. These organizations contend that the initiative is a covert privatization scheme designed to divert public school funding. Hochul has countered these claims, asserting that the program benefits students across all school types without reducing funds for public education. "I've been clear from the start that New York would participate in the federal scholarship tax credit program if, and only if, all schools and students, including those in our public schools, could benefit," Hochul said. "After a careful review of the federal regulations, we believe this program has the potential to bring millions of additional dollars to New York students and families without taking a single dollar from our state or local budgets... I’m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids."