Committee on Ways and Means
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serve, we urge you to VOTE NO on H.R. 8915, the “Education and Workforce Freedom Act”. Votes on this issue may be included in NEA’s Report Card for the 118th Congress.
We have long opposed using tax expenditures to create or advance school vouchers in any form, including expanding 529 accounts to fund homeschooling or education expenses connected to private and religious K-12 schools. This expansion, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, diverts needed revenue away from our public schools to families who are able to attend private schools. H.R. 8915 is a further expansion in the wrong direction. Allowing families to use 529 plans for home schooling expenses is an additional unwarranted diversion of scarce education resources but is also not administrable by the IRS and opens the door to potential fraud. Indeed, similar programs across states have been rife with fraudulent expenses on items like big-screen televisions, video game systems, trampolines and skis.
This diversion is all the more unreasonable when the majority’s FY25 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill slashes funding for public education by $11 billion or 14 percent. NEA opposes this legislation and will continue to work to end the use of 529 plans for K-12 expenses.
We urge you to VOTE NO on H.R. 8915.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
