In 2027, almost everyone’s federal income tax return will include a question we have never had to answer before. While it may look like a question about a tax credit, it is really a question about whether we will choose to put poor children first.

The Educational Choice for Children Act, which Congress passed and President Trump signed into law last summer, will enable taxpayers to direct some of their tax dollars to new K-12 scholarships aimed primarily—although not exclusively—at private schools. This change comes as educational inequality, as measured by standardized test scores, widens across the United States. Where we choose to direct those tax dollars will determine whether we exacerbate this inequality or help students who really need it.

In brief, the E.C.C.A. allows every federal income tax payer to contribute up to $1,700 each year to a scholarship granting organization (S.G.O.) in any state that allows this and to receive a one-to-one tax credit. Families making up to 300 percent of their area’s median income—about $300,000 around Cleveland, for example—can apply to those S.G.O.s for scholarships to defray the costs of private schools, homeschooling, tutoring or other K-12 educational expenses.

Federal taxpayers will be able to make these contributions when we file our 2026 taxes next year. States must decide whether to opt into the program, but so far at least 28 of them, including about half the country’s population, have done so. Even as the Treasury Department is fine-tuning the rules for administering tax credit scholarships, dioceses and independent Catholic schools are already setting up S.G.O.s to receive contributions. 

Seemingly small decisions about the structure, policies and marketing of these S.G.O.s can make tax credit scholarships a lever that either mitigates or exacerbates inequality. This phenomenon is already apparent in Ohio, one of 18 states that already have tax credit scholarships.

Ohio tax credit scholarships: A bellwether?

Again, tax credit scholarships differ from vouchers and education savings accounts—currently the most common forms of public funding for school choice—in that individual taxpayers can direct scholarship contributions to specific schools. 

My colleagues and I are grateful to every taxpayer who has directed their contributions to one of the four Catholic schools that we manage in the heart of Cleveland. (Those four long-serving community institutions are part of Partnership Schools, a network dedicated to ensuring that excellent Catholic schools stay open in the communities that most need them.) At our schools, 99 percent of students come from families whose incomes qualify them for federal free- and reduced-price meals. They also benefit from multiple forms of school choice, including state-funded EdChoice scholarships, which provide $6,166 per student, and state tax credit scholarships, which will continue to exist after E.C.C.A. takes effect. 

With the latter, individuals can contribute $750 to an S.G.O. and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit on their state income tax. Next year, those same individuals can contribute to both state and federal tax credit scholarships (but the cap of $1,700 applies to both—so someone who contributes $500 to a state tax credit scholarship fund could give only $1,200 to a federal program’s S.G.O.). 

Here’s an example. One of our schools, St. Thomas Aquinas, received $9,000 in tax credit scholarship contributions last year. That’s not bad when you consider that 38 percent of families in the neighborhood live in poverty and many do not earn enough to pay any state income tax. But then look at St. Helen Parish School in Newbury, about 40 miles east of Cleveland. The poverty rate in Newbury is less than 5 percent, meaning that a comparatively small number of Catholic school students need assistance. Last year, St. Helen parents and parishioners contributed $258,000 in Ohio tax credit scholarships for the parish school, or more than 28 times the amount contributed to St. Thomas Aquinas. We are determined to emulate them in Cleveland, but it’s not easy. 

The gap in scholarship income between St. Thomas and St. Helen may be replicated all over the country next year. What can we do about it now?

Making tax credit scholarships a tool for justice

First, families can ask their governors to opt in to tax credit scholarships if they have not already done so. If states do not opt in, their taxpayers may still make tax credit scholarship contributions to students in other states, making some students winners and others losers simply by virtue of a governor’s decision.

We can also decide to dedicate at least a portion of our tax credit scholarship contributions to schools serving large numbers of students from low-income families. S.G.O.s can make this easier by listing the percentage of free-lunch-eligible students at each school and, depending on what rules the I.R.S. adopts, providing the option of contributing to “students most in need” regardless of where they attend school. They could also provide the option of sending contributions to reputable organizations that provide tutoring and support for students from low-income families in public schools, particularly those who qualify for services like Title I tutoring and those experiencing homelessness. 

Dioceses and others who establish S.G.O.s can also make it easy to split contributions among multiple institutions. That way, those of us who graduated from elite independent schools, for example, can support both our alma maters and schools serving a high number of low-income families.

However it happens, S.G.O.s should consider prioritizing the needs of the lowest-income applicants for scholarships. For example, two S.G.O.s might receive $100,000 each in contributions but make different choices about how to distribute it. One may decide to give five $20,000 scholarships to students attending high-tuition schools, but another could give 50 scholarships of $2,000 each and prioritize lower-income families. S.G.O.s could also make it easier for paperwork-burdened families to prove their eligibility for scholarships. 

But all the funding in the world for low-income families will not matter if our schools aren’t welcoming places for their children. So in this moment of renewed promise, Catholic schools and dioceses can renew their commitment to preserving Catholic schools in low-income communities, creating school cultures where economically diverse students can thrive and providing transportation to students from low-income families who must travel outside their communities to receive a Catholic education. 

Directing tax credit scholarships to students from low-income families is particularly important in our current political climate. The same budget law that authorized tax credit scholarships also cut funding for programs vital to the basic needs of the most vulnerable, including SNAP and Medicaid. Many taxpayers—including those whose own children benefit—may have been unaware that Medicaid is integral to the early interventions that public and some Catholic schools offer for children with disabilities. Other federal education programs remain funded at fiscal 2025 levels for now, but there have been serious efforts to make major cuts, even as the most vulnerable U.S. students are struggling more, by academic measures, than at any time in the last 45 years. 

Some may cheer the shift in power over tax dollars from policymakers to individuals, and others may bemoan it. But most of us will have the power soon to direct some part of our tax funding to those most in need. It is time for us to use that power. 

Beth Blaufuss is the vice president for strategic initiatives at Partnership Schools, a nonprofit school management organization that runs Catholic schools in under-resourced communities on behalf of dioceses.