in effect
This is a presidential executive order (Executive Order 14191, signed January 29, 2025) directing federal agencies to promote “educational choice” — letting families use public funds toward schooling options other than their assigned public school. It does not create a new program or spend new money; it instructs several Cabinet secretaries to issue guidance and submit plans on how existing federal funds could support that goal.
It sets a series of deadlines for federal agencies. Within 60 days, the Secretary of Education must issue guidance on how states can use federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice. Within 90 days, the Secretaries of Labor and Education must review their discretionary grant programs and submit plans, and Education must also make “education freedom” a priority in those grants. Also within 90 days, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must issue guidance on whether states can use block grants (including the Child Care and Development Block Grant) for educational alternatives including private and faith-based options, while the Secretaries of Defense and the Interior must review how military-connected families and families eligible for Bureau of Indian Education schools could use federal funds for schools of their choice, aiming at the 2025–26 school year.
The order directly tasks the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Defense, and the Interior, which must produce the guidance and plans. Families it names include those in states with scholarship programs, low-income and working families receiving block-grant-funded services, military-connected families, and families of students eligible for Bureau of Indian Education schools. The order explicitly creates no new legally enforceable rights and is subject to available funding, so any actual change to families depends on the guidance and plans the agencies later produce.