Redirect Your Taxes to Fund Christian Education—Here's How
The Education Freedom Tax Credit is transforming Christian education.
Across the nation, Christian families with limited incomes have been stuck with only one option for educating their children—secular government schools that often conflict with their faith and values. Thanks to Education Freedom Tax Credits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Christian Education Network (CEN), an alternative path has been created. Americans can now turn their tax dollars into scholarships to help students access Christian education.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit is a dollar-for-dollar credit (up to $1,700) for donations toward non-public education. CEN has created a Scholarship Granting Organization (CEN SGO) that will process donations, starting in January 2027, for use at Christian schools nationwide.
States must opt to participate in the tax credit program. Currently, 29 states have opted in—including two Democrat-controlled states. In Colorado, Democrat Gov. Jared Polis reasoned that if states don’t opt in, their resident taxpayers can still claim the tax credit, but they won’t benefit from the scholarships their donations support.
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, opted in just before leaving-office in 2025. So far, the new Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger hasn’t revoked Youngkin’s decision. If she does, the state stands to lose over $731 million in scholarship funds generated by Virginia donors that would go to students in other states.
How the Program Works
Everyone who donates up to $1,700 toward the CEN SGO will be eligible for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit off their federal income taxes. The organization will then turn those donations into scholarships for student applicants in grades K–12 at participating Christian schools.
“This is a defining moment for Christian education in America,” said Aaron Baer, founder of the Christian Education Network and president of the Center for Christian Virtue. “For the first time, families can take money they already owe to the federal government and redirect it into scholarships that fund a Christ-centered education.”
The Opposition
Democrats push a false narrative concerning “separation of church and state”—a concept not mentioned in any of the nation’s founding documents. Yet they don’t want families who have moral and religious objections to public schooling to have an alternative.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) doesn’t like the idea of families having education choice. On Apr. 15, 2026, he introduced a bill to repeal the popular education tax credits. That effort is unlikely to succeed under a Republican-controlled legislature.
Opponents who cite “separation of church and state” betray their ignorance of the phrase's origins and history. Thomas Jefferson originally used the phrase in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association who was concerned about the government infringing on their religious liberty. Jefferson wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”
Early government leaders wanted to protect an individual’s right to worship, not eliminate it. In early public education, the Bible was a key component of classroom instruction for moral and ethical understanding. Over time, biblical teachings were prohibited in public schools and replaced with the religion of secularism.
Public schools have stopped teaching Christian morals and values and instead have adopted a curriculum that violates Christian principles. In government schools across the nation, children are taught topics that contradict biblical directives. Homosexual relationships and transgender ideology are not only presented as moral concepts, but those who disagree are portrayed as bigots.
Parents continue to fight government schools’ anti-Christian indoctrination. In the Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), parents sued their school board for failing to allow an opt-out of LGBT-themed lessons. After a long and expensive court battle, the court ruled that public schools must allow opt-outs from LGBT themed books. The high court concluded that a government action that poses “a very real threat of undermining” the religious beliefs of a parent is unconstitutional.
Anti-Christian curriculum is still present in schools across the nation, and often parents aren’t even aware. How can they opt out if they don’t know what their children are being taught?
Christian families shouldn’t feel obligated to send their children to secular schools that violate their religious convictions. Thankfully, hope is on the horizon with Education Freedom Tax credits that can provide scholarships to Christian schools through organizations like CEN SGO.
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