Florida rabbi urges support for national school choice plan

School choice would benefit all students – including Jewish students and those of other faiths – according to a Florida rabbi who supports the federal Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA).

Writing in the Orlando Sentinel, Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Matz, who leads Aventura Shul near Miami, said Florida’s success with school choice should be replicated across the country.

“Over the last two decades, school choice has had a tremendous impact on Florida, with over 500,000 students participating this year,” Matz wrote. “These scholarships have evolved from simply providing families with private school alternatives to traditional public schools, to fostering new and innovative ways of educating students, such as hybrid learning and microschools.” 

Jewish day school enrollment growth has been “astronomical,” he said, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Jewish schools in Florida has nearly doubled in the past 15 years. 

The growth has been “boosted by parents using state school choice scholarships and the migration of families from New York [and] other states,” he wrote. “Most families who relocate here list the scholarship programs as a top priority.” 

Many Jews live in states such as New York, New Jersey and California, which currently do not offer school choice. If ECCA becomes law, students in all 50 states could participate in the tax-credit-based scholarship program. In states that already offer school choice, students could combine ECCA funds with other scholarships and education savings accounts. 

The measure is part of the current version of the federal budget proposal, which supporters have referred to as a “big, beautiful bill.” It passed the House early Thursday and now awaits Senate approval. The original tax credit amount of $10 billion was reduced to $5 billion per year for four years. 

Matz said the funding “is not an expenditure – it’s an investment. The more society provides students with the opportunity to be in the learning environment of their choice, the more likely they will become productive citizens that will repay that investment tenfold.” 

He acknowledged that many blue states on the East and West coasts “probably will never” pass school choice, but said families in every state “are begging for this.” 

Parents should control their children’s education – a core Jewish value – and that right should not be restricted by geography, he said. Matz called school choice “the greatest equalizer; it gives people the opportunity to benefit from all that society has to offer.” 

In urging Congress to keep ECCA in the federal budget, he called it “the next step in empowering parents and unleashing the transformative power of choice.” 

The Trump administration has shown strong support for school choice, and experts have said this year’s budget is the best chance to implement it nationally. 

Eighteen states have approved universal school choice programs, and 35 states have some form of school choice. 

President Donald Trump hopes to be able to sign a budget bill by July 4.