EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s Tax Credit is Fueling Christians’ Public School Exodus

There's a torpedo aimed straight at the teachers' unions that almost no one's talking about—save Aaron Baer.

It's a tax credit buried in President Donald Trump's much vaunted "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that, so far, has received little fanfare outside certain circles, the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) founder told Restoration News. But if just 100,000 families filed for the credit next year, it'd represent a $500 million incentive to pull kids out of government schools—and out of the Left's clutches.

"We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save the next generation, and save America," Baer explained. "If we want to save our nation, we must reform education from the ground up—and that starts with getting kids out of public schools and into Christian schools. Enough is enough."

The Quiet Revolution

Christian education has steadily gained ground since the 1960s amid the ever-encroaching secularization of America's public school system. But it exploded after the 2020 COVID lockdowns, with homeschooling rates doubling from 5.4 to 11 percent of households and Christian school enrollment spiking 35 percent—the greatest exodus from government schools in U.S. history.

That will have enormous consequences for the future of the teachers' unions, which exert near-total control over the nation's 131,000 public schools.

Aaron Baer

"Their power comes from the money they bleed out of taxpayers through public school teachers and the control they exert over children's minds in the classroom," Baer said, hailing the Trump tax credit as "the antidote to both problems."

A similar system is already in place for many states, including Ohio, where the CCV is based. The center leads the Christian Education Network, which links Evangelical and Catholic schools working to expand access to Christian education. "We've been able to provide over $9.4 million to Ohio families for scholarships over just the past three years," Baer explained.

Those scholarships were facilitated through the state's own Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) program, established in 2023, which grants up to $1,500 per filing couple to eligible SGOs—a type of charity that distributes scholarships to nonprofit schools.

The Federal Tax Credit Scholarship, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, effectively extends that program to SGOs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia at an even higher contribution level, making it the most ambitious federal education voucher to date.

The program offers a scholarship of up to $1,700 to children attending private Evangelical, Catholic, or classical nonprofit schools. Families who donate to qualified SGOs can claim the credit to reduce what they owe to the IRS each year, similar to a charitable contribution. But unlike a charitable contribution, the Trump tax credit is dollar-for-dollar, with no cap on the total program budget and no sunset clause.

While the federal rules are still being finalized, the incentive will likely be allocated by household—so a family could theoretically file for up to $5,100 if the parents and both sets of grandparents file for the credit. Baer points out that it has the potential to "unleash billions of dollars to evangelize the next generation like never before."

If 100,000 families claimed the credit for their schools, including grandparents, it could amount to $510 million in new funding for private Christian education.

There are some limitations, however. Family income must be less than 300 percent of their county's median income (which you can calculate at ami-lookup-tool.fanniemae.com), which means about 83 percent of all families nationwide are eligible for the credit. Since the funds are donated to eligible SGOs, which pass the money on to schools, it's unclear whether parents who opt for homeschooling programs are eligible. And it's opt-in, so families living in anti-choice states may be unable to participate or find that their school isn't on the governor's list of approved SGOs, but we won’t know for sure until next January.

There are only a handful of likely trouble states, according to the advocacy group EdChoice: California, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Hawaii, and Michigan. All exclude taxpayers from claiming K–12 tuition expenses through eligible 529 education savings plans.

Nevertheless, that's a crucial upper hand in the war against woke education. And it could make private school a realistic possibility for many believers.

"By giving families a way out, it'll end the indoctrination of our children by the unions and allow parents to hold public schools accountable," Baer said. "Either stop pushing Marxism on our kids, or we're pulling them out."

Save the Churches, Save the Nation

Christ's commandments to live in the light of God apply not only to individual believers but to their entire country.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He chose for his inheritance," (Ps. 33:12) wrote the psalmist of ancient Israel, a blessing that now encompasses the church.

The road to national redemption requires filling churches with repentant men and women who embrace their holy duty to raise up God-fearing children rather than surrender it to the government.

When the Apostle Paul urged fathers to "bring [their children] up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD," (Eph. 6:4) he encouraged the full-spectrum cultivation of wisdom, responsibility, and reason. The Greeks of his day called this paideia and nouthesia. It meant using loving admonition that builds the kind of character that will "make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 3:15). Paul transformed the civic paideia—originally meant to make good Athenian citizens—into a curriculum for holiness, led by nurturing mothers and fathers whose love reflects the love of our own Heavenly Father.

This commitment to Christian education rooted in truth and godliness built the United States and the West, and now we must reclaim that responsibility from the teachers' unions who usurped it. The Trump tax credit is a great start… but it will only work if we use it.

As for Aaron Baer, he's just getting started. "We've launched 15 new Christian church schools in the past three years, empowering the body of Christ to disciple these kids," he explained.

His organization aims to launch thousands more schools across the country in the coming years.

"Teachers' unions led us into this place, where school leaders are advocating for boys in girls' bathrooms," Baer noted. "But Christ is leading us out again."

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