Donate $1,700 to an eligible Catholic Scholarship Granting Organization starting on Jan. 1, 2027, and the government will then allow you to deduct the exact amount, dollar for dollar, from your federal taxes owed. Practically, you break even. In the process, you open the doors for hundreds of thousands of children to benefit from Catholic education while strengthening the work of Catholic schools.

Too good to be true? Actually, it is good and true. This is the opportunity that the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program places in our hands as Catholics.

There are roughly 28 million Catholic households in the United States. Multiply this number by 1,700. The program allows married couples filing jointly to make a similar donation individually ($3,400 per household) and receive the same benefit. Taxpaying Catholic households could be contributing billions of dollars to Catholic education every year.

Granted, not all states are participating, although Catholics where such is the case should continue to question why their political leaders resist what for decades the Church and many Catholic education advocates have identified as a social good.

As the year 2026 sunsets, more than 30 states have filed with the IRS or expressed interest in opting in to be part of the program. Funds must be donated to eligible Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) in the states that opted in. States will make available the lists of these organizations, several of them Catholic.

Even if a state does not opt in, Catholics, and others, can make contributions to Catholic Scholarship Granting Organizations in the states that do. This financial investment can bring life and energy to Catholic educational institutions throughout our nation.

A different tone in the school choice debate

This program strikes a different tone in the contentious conversations about school choice. It does not pit private and public education against each other. In fact, it benefits educational efforts in both sectors. It does not build on the premise of taking from one sector to give to the other, yet it makes demands on both to provide good-quality education.

The program gives Catholic families and taxpayers the agency to invest once again in an educational choice that has profound meaning to us. We have a long track record of investing in Catholic education at a large scale.

We built more than 13,000 Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Catholic families, parish communities, dioceses, religious orders of women and men, philanthropists, and foundations, among others, have supported this work with generous financial investment, and millions of Catholic children have been educated.

For centuries, Catholic education has helped weave the U.S. social fabric by forming countless young women and men with values grounded in what is true, good, and beautiful. They have gone on to become parents, grandparents, professionals, advocates, and faithful citizens sharing the best of the Catholic worldview.

We must continue to form the new generation of young Catholic children with the quality education we know Catholic schools can deliver. This program gives us a practical and tangible way to make a financial contribution toward that goal.

This is a good investment in the common good of our Catholic children and that of our Catholic schools. The opportunity is here to try it. It is up to us to miss it. Whether we have school-age children at home or not, everyone should have a stake in the education of the next generation of Catholic children.

Let us encourage our Church leaders and Catholic school educators to share more information about the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit. The more informed all Catholics are, the more impact the program will have.

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Hosffman Ospino is professor of theology and religious education at Boston College.