The Next Threat to Education: Congress’ Budget Reconciliation
Here’s what families, advocates, and education leaders need to know — and what we can do about it
April 14, 2025 by EdTrust 
April 14, 2025 by EdTrust
Following the administration’s harmful decision to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, Congress is now considering employing another tool to slash potentially billions in critical education funding: budget reconciliation, a process to advance sweeping legislation that would further threaten our national education system, undermine public schools, and devastate programs and supports to address college affordability. Because the budget reconciliation process only requires a simple majority in both the House and Senate, the Republican majority in Congress can advance their policy agenda without bipartisan support — making it easier to push through deep cuts to public education and critical programs that students and families depend on.
As Americans, we must voice our opposition to any proposal that reduces or diverts money and supports from students and public education to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Here’s what families, advocates, and education leaders need to know — and what we can do about it.
What is Budget Reconciliation?
Budget reconciliation is a legislative process that allows Congress to fast-track legislation related to federal spending, revenue, or the debt limit with simple majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and without being subject to the filibuster. Republican leaders in both the House and Senate are using this process to ram through proposals that would cut education funding and redirect public dollars to private interests, with long-term consequences for both P-12 and higher education.
Learn more about harmful budget reconciliation proposals. We’ve included information on what’s at stake and how students will be impacted below.
Contact your members of Congress regarding budget reconciliation: You can contact your representatives by calling their office, writing them a letter, setting up a meeting, and/or attending an event to urge them to:
- Reject the federal school voucher tax credit and protect public school funding for all students. NoVouchers.org includes a fact sheet on the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) and a form to tell your members of congress that you oppose the creation of a federal school voucher tax credit.
- Protect students’ food and healthcare access in and out of schools by rejecting cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid.
- Invest in student financial aid and college affordability — not cut it. Use EdTrust’s federal funding data tool and fact sheets to see how many students in your state receive federal financial aid and loans.
- Preserve student loan forgiveness, income-driven repayment programs, and protections for borrowers. Organizations supporting college access and accountability, including EdTrust, penned this letter to Congress to defend funding for college affordability and protections for borrowers. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and Student Borrower Protection Center have developed state and congressional district fact sheets with data on student financial aid and borrowers.
- Defend the role of public education and affordable higher education in building a strong economy and workforce.
Activate your community: share information via social media and/or engage with local media to highlight the harmful impact of these proposals on students, borrowers, families, and schools. EdTrust has guidance on engaging with media, including how to use Letters to the Editor and op-eds for advocacy.
- #SaveOurStudents | #ProtectPublicEducation | #RejectFederalVouchers
What’s at Stake for P-12 Students?
Congress could use budget reconciliation to create a federal voucher tax credit for individuals and corporations who donate to scholarship-granting organizations that pay for private school tuition and homeschooling.
While it’s being framed as “school choice,” this is a backdoor federal school voucher program. This plan would accelerate the privatization of public education at the federal level — for the first time in history — and would disproportionately harm students from low-income communities, rural communities, and communities of color who rely on well-resourced public schools.
Congress has also proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, threatening food security and healthcare access for millions of students and jeopardizing their physical, mental, and academic well-being.
What’s at Stake: Billions in Public Funds
Congress has introduced the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), which sets up a 100% federal tax credit to individuals and corporations who donate to private scholarship-granting organizations. The proposal would divert billions in taxpayer money to private schools and families who homeschool. The Senate version of the bill proposes providing $100 billion or more in tax credits.
Congress could use budget reconciliation to include a federal tax credit program based on ECCA.
How will this impact students?
Vouchers and other privatization programs, like ECCA, hurt student outcomes and undermine access to a high-quality education for the vast majority of students.
Passing ECCA would:
- Undermine public education, which serves 90% of U.S. students by diverting billions in federal revenue to private institutions.
- Open the door to discrimination against students, since private schools are not subject to the same civil rights obligations to serve students of color, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, LGBTQ+ students, and students from different religious backgrounds.
- Reduce transparency and accountability by funding private schools that are not required to follow civil rights laws or public reporting standards.
- Harm students in rural areas and from low-income backgrounds if ECCA’s passage is used to justify cutting federal education funding. These students—whose schools often rely heavily on federal funding –could see their public school defunded without any access to private schools due to lack of proximity or tuition/attendance costs exceeding what vouchers cover.
What’s at Stake: Children’s Nutrition and Food Security
Congress has proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which supports sustainable nutrition access for low-income families.
SNAP reduces food insecurity, leading to improved health outcomes, lower overall healthcare expenses, decreased absenteeism due to illness, and thus improved academic outcomes.
How will this impact students?
Cutting SNAP would exacerbate hunger and food insecurity for millions of students, jeopardizing their physical, mental, and academic well-being. In FY 2022, SNAP served 7.3 million households with children. Proposed limits on SNAP could also reduce students’ access to school meals and summer food benefits.
Cuts to SNAP would also have a devastating impact on college students. In 2020 alone, 3.8 million college students — nearly 1 in 4 — reported experiencing food insecurity.
What’s at Stake: Healthcare In and Out of Schools
Congress has proposed cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare coverage to more than 70 million people, including 40% of all children.
Medicaid is also one of the largest funding streams for K-12 education in our country. Each year, Medicaid provides $7.5 billion dollars to schools for critical health services.
How will this impact students?
Cuts to Medicaid would have devastating impacts on school communities, especially those serving students from low-income backgrounds and students with disabilities. Medicaid provides nearly 30 million students in public schools access to the physical and mental health services they need excel academically.
What’s at Stake for College Students?
Through budget reconciliation, Congress also threatens to significantly rollback college affordability provisions and borrower protections for college students, leading to cuts in essential financial aid and costlier student loans. Proposals under consideration would make it harder for students to access, afford, and complete college — particularly first-generation students, students of color, and those already burdened by debt.
What’s at Stake: Loans and Protections for Borrowers
The College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), if included in budget reconciliation, could reduce access to affordable repayment pathways and terminate repayment plans designed to prevent lifelong debt burdens and help borrowers manage their monthly repayment obligations.
CCRA also seeks to remove borrower protections. Congress could eliminate regulations, such as the Borrower Defense to Repayment, Gainful Employment, and Closed School Discharge rules, that protect borrowers from repaying loans to institutions that have deceived or misled them, failed to prepare students for gainful employment, or closed suddenly.
How will this impact students?
If CCRA is passed, borrowers would pay nearly $200 more per month on average. Borrowers would remain in debt longer and would be more vulnerable to defaulting on their loans if they do not make their scheduled loan payments on time. Defaulting on a student loan can have serious legal and financial consequences. Furthermore, by eliminating relief following 20-25 years of loan repayment, borrowers could end up potentially repaying loans for the rest of their lives.
Students will be more vulnerable to fraud, misrepresentation, and abuse, if regulations that protect borrowers from predatory institutions are eliminated. Students who attend a school that closes suddenly are less likely to complete their degree, yet under CCRA, they would remain saddled with debt.
What’s at Stake: Affordable Loan Repayment
The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan is a 2023 policy that was developed to make federal student loan repayment more affordable. It is an income-driven repayment plan that would reduce how much borrowers pay monthly, provide debt cancellation sooner for low-balance borrowers, and forgive unpaid interest when borrowers make a payment. This program is currently enjoined in court, but Congress may seek to eliminate the program altogether.
How will this impact students?
Borrowers would continue to make higher monthly payments and be in debt for longer if SAVE is eliminated. Without a functional income-driven repayment plan, borrowers, especially those from low-income backgrounds or with fewer resources, are more vulnerable to defaulting on their student loans.
What’s at Stake: Loans for Graduate Students
Direct unsubsidized loans for graduate students could be capped, and Grad PLUS loans, which help cover education expenses not covered by other financial aid, could be eliminated.
How will this impact students?
If loans for graduate students are capped or eliminated, students, especially students from low-income backgrounds, might be unable to afford to further their education or be driven toward the private loan market and predatory lenders.
What’s at Stake: Postsecondary Education Access and Affordability
The CCRA could change how Pell Grants, which help students from low-income backgrounds afford college, are calculated. This could lead to lower caps on Pell Grants.
Congress could also eliminate the American Opportunity Tax Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit, and student loan interest deduction, which help students and families offset the costs of paying for college and repaying their loans.
How will this impact students?
7 million students rely on Pell Grants. Capping Pell grants at lower amounts would make college less affordable for students from low-income backgrounds.
Millions of Americans would pay more in taxes if Congress eliminates tax credits and deductions that help students and families afford college and repayment, putting higher education further out of reach for many.