Washington has written the rulebook for school choice. Here's what it means for Mississippi.
Washington has just published the rulebook for the biggest school choice reform in American history.
On October 1, the Treasury and the IRS released the regulations for the new federal scholarship tax credit. Congress created it in the One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025. Since then, states, charities and taxpayers have been waiting for the detail. Now they have it.
The credit goes live on January 1st.
For most of the last century, the money for a child's schooling has followed the system, not the child. Where you lived decided where your child went to school, unless you could afford to pay twice: once in taxes and again in tuition.
This is different. For the first time, the federal tax code lets ordinary taxpayers decide where a slice of their taxes goes, and it lets them send it to a child's education.
How does it work? From January, you can give up to $1,700 to a Scholarship Granting Organization, or SGO. A married couple can give $3,400. Every dollar comes straight back off your federal tax bill. It is not a deduction. It is a credit, dollar for dollar.
So for most people, it costs nothing. The only question is who gets the money: the IRS, or a child.
The SGO pools what it receives and awards scholarships. Families earning up to 300 percent of area median income qualify. Treasury reckons that covers 96 percent of children in participating states. The scholarships pay for tuition, tutoring, books and special needs support. The money goes to the school. It never goes to a family as cash. You cannot earmark your gift for a particular child, and that includes your own.
The rules are strict, as they should be. At least 90 percent of what an SGO takes in must go out in scholarships. Every SGO is audited every year.
Treasury expects that by 2030, more than 11 million Americans will be giving. That would be nearly $26 billion a year, funding up to 2.2 million scholarships.
What does this mean for Mississippi? The credit only applies in states whose governor opts in. Thirty have now done so. Mississippi was one of the first: Governor Reeves opted us in back in January.
What happens next matters. The Governor's office must decide which charities qualify as SGOs and send that list to the IRS by February 15th. Only organizations on that list can receive gifts that earn the credit.
That means that within a few months, Mississippians will have decisions to make. Which SGOs should you trust with your $1,700? Who do they serve? If you are a parent, where do you apply?
Until now, there has been no single place to find out. So the Mississippi Center for Public Policy built one.
CompareMySchool.com/sgos is Mississippi's one-stop shop for the federal scholarship tax credit. It explains, in plain English, how the credit works, who qualifies, and the dates that matter. When the Governor names the state's SGOs, every one of them will be listed there, along with a guide to what each does and who it helps.
For years, school choice has been something politicians argued about. From January, it becomes something you can do yourself, with money you were going to hand to the IRS anyway.