The Club for Growth Action announced the launch of $5 million in broadcast advertisements in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The ads will begin on Monday, August 10. These ads will emphasize President Donald Trump’s call for Emergency Parental Choice Grants. Joe Biden’s record on the issue is to keep schools closed this fall. Politico’s Alex Isenstadt published an exclusive report on the announcement.
The press release mentions that both The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the American
Association of Pediatricians recommend that schools reopen in fall 2020. Many parents are also asking for a safe reopening of schools, and President Trump has also called for states to reopen schools safely. In his State of the Union Address, he championed school choice tax credits. President Trump has called on Congress to pass the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act. This act would provide federal tax credits for scholarships to private schools and other education services for 1 million students. His plan would allow for $5 billion in federal tax credits that would provide a dollar-for-dollar match in exchange for contributions to scholarship programs in participating states.
The Club for Growth is calling for Emergency Parental Choice Scholarships to be made available to ALL students that
are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, at all income levels. Once the pandemic is over, the Emergency Parental Choice Scholarships can convert to President Trump’s tax credit.
The CARES Act does include funds for state and local governments, but those funds are focused entirely on schools that are not going to fully reopen in the fall. Many families need help now so they can afford to send their children back to schools safely. The Emergency Parental Choice Scholarship is optional. This is about providing choice to students and families when some school districts aren’t offering a safe reopening option.
Other key points made in the press release are:
• The Parental Choice Scholarships program will be administered by Dept. of Education and scholarship granting organizations (SGO’s), which shall receive direct funding through Treasury.
• Funds will not be taxable under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
• Funding shall be offset through remaining federal funding from previous Coronavirus legislation and/or a proportionate reduction of Title I funding received by a school district on a per-student basis for children transitioning out of public schools.
• Funds can be administered through one or more service providers such as ClassWallet (www.classwallet.com) or FACTS (www.factsmgt.com)
The entire press release can be viewed here.
