My friend Rabbi Joshua Borenstein sent along the video below of Senator Cruz speaking to the orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel with the laconic message: “Ted Cruz explaining at length what it took to get school choice in the Big Beautiful Bill. Definitely worth the 20 minutes.” JB’s interest is professional. He is executive director of the Torah Academy day school in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
I took the time and learned something from Cruz’s remarks. I learned that the bill includes potentially significant support for school-choice. In substance, it allows a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $1700 for contributions to scholarship-granting nonprofits.
The related press release from Senator Cruz’s office is posted here. It quotes from the NR story “Inside Ted Cruz’s Reconciliation Fight for School-Choice Tax Credits,” which is unfortunately behind NR’s paywall.
NR explains: “Following parliamentarian pushback on the original legislative language that applied the tax credit to all fifty states, the final version of the bill lifts the [aggregate] cap on tax credits but allows states to opt out of the scholarship program.” As I understand this, states can opt out of giving parents access to scholarships from the nonprofits, but they can’t opt out of the tax credit.
In the press release, in the NR story, and in the video below, Senator Cruz discusses the background of the school-choice component of the Big Beautiful Bill and his meetings with President Trump, with Senate Republican leadership, and with the Senate parliamentarian supporting it. I didn’t know anything about the Educational Choice for Children Act, but I did know that Cruz is a fantastic speaker without a note. As my friend says, “definitely worth the 20 minutes” — starting at 4:45. This is his account of the school-choice component of the Big Beautiful Bill.
