Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) was one of the biggest winners of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. The veteran lawmaker scored a series of policy wins on issues important to both him specifically and to Texans more broadly in the bill’s final version.
“Without exaggeration, there are more conservative victories in this One Big, Beautiful Bill than in any piece of legislation that has ever passed into law in the history of our country,” Cruz told the Washington Reporter in an interview.
But one topic, in particular, stands out to the Texan: school choice, which he said is “the civil rights issue of the 21st century.”
Thanks to Cruz, families and children across America can use expanded 529 college savings plans and a federal tax credit to cover K-12 education.
“In this bill, we passed the single most far-reaching federal school choice legislation that has ever been enacted,” he said. “One provision, which I wrote, creates a federal tax credit for every taxpayer in America. You can give up to $1,700 a year to a scholarship-granting organization in the states, and you get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on your federal income taxes.”
Cruz said that provision “will produce billions and billions of dollars of scholarship money in the states for K-12 education, and it is transformational federal school choice legislation.”
“On top of that, a different provision that I wrote and that passed into law in this bill, expands college 529 savings accounts,” Cruz said.
Every Democrat in the House and Senate voted against the One Big, Beautiful Bill, meaning that they all opposed Cruz’s education reform work.
The Texas Republican has spent years working on expanding 529 savings accounts, dating back to at least the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which “included an amendment I authored to expand college 529 savings plans to include K-12 education,” he explained.
But Cruz’s “historic” wins in the 2025 bill meant that “we doubled the cap on contributions.”
“That enables parents to spend significantly more for K-12 expenses, and we also significantly expanded what they could spend it on,” Cruz said.
“Previously, it was limited primarily to tuition for private or religious K-12 schools,” Cruz said. “Now we added that the money can be used to pay for school curriculum, for books, for tutoring, for standardized testing fees.”
“So it’s all about empowering parents to use tax advantage accounts to meet the educational needs of their kids,” Cruz said. “It can also be used to pay for educational therapies for kids with disabilities, which is yet another tool to help meet the individualized needs of each child.”
Despite the importance of Cruz’s reforms, especially in the wake of historic learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, he told the Reporter that there is “tragically, absolutely zero” momentum from Democrats to join him on this issue.
Cruz specifically pointed to the lack of leadership demonstrated by then-Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) during the first Trump administration. Manchin initially voted for Cruz’s 2017 reform of 529 savings accounts, but then “Manchin went to his desk, he sat down, and a sea of Democrats descended upon him,” as Cruz described it.
“Chuck Schumer descended upon him and began yelling at him. I think they were literally beating him with sticks,” Cruz said. “Five minutes later, Manchin sheepishly walks forward and switches his vote to a no.”
That forced then-Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie.
Fast-forwarding to the COVID-19 era, Cruz tried to get Manchin to support his amendment which “said [that] if schools are open and if they’re teaching kids, they get all this new money the Democrats are sending.”
“But if schools are closed, if they are not teaching children in person five days a week, and the schools get all the old money that they got yesterday, but the new tens of billions of dollars that the Democrats are shoveling out the door, they don’t get that and instead, that new money goes in the form of $10,000 scholarships to parents, because if their public school is shut down and is refusing to educate their kids, the parents will have the tools to be able to go to some other school that actually will teach their kids.”
Every Senate Republican joined Cruz, who tried to get Manchin on board.
“I went to Joe Manchin, and I said, ‘Joe, remember those glorious five minutes when you stood with the kids of America and you voted in favor of giving them hope and opportunity. You voted for their civil rights, you voted for their future.’ And Joe said, ‘I just can’t do it,’” Cruz recounted.
Cruz said that if “a single Democrat had voted” with Republicans, they “could have provided hope and a lifeline to the tens of millions of kids who, for more than a year, had their schools shut down.”
“And by the way, the educational damage done to kids from the Democrats’ COVID shutdowns produced the greatest learning loss ever recorded,” Cruz said. “They also grew the racial learning gap by more than has ever occurred in our nation’s history.”
Cruz said that the Democrats, “by shutting down schools, hurt children across America, but in particular, they hurt low-income kids. The Texas Republican said the Democrats also “hurt African-American kids, hurt Hispanic kids, and not a single Democrat cared, because all that matters to them on this issue is millions and millions of dollars for the teachers union bosses.”
Republicans, on the other hand, are increasingly unified on this issue, in part due to the leadership of Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott (R., Texas).
Weeks before Congress passed historic nationwide school choice expansion, Texas passed the largest state version, thanks in part to Cruz supporting Republican candidates on the state level who align with him on the issue.
“For the last six years, I have engaged in Republican primaries in the state of Texas, in the State House and in the State Senate, supporting candidates who support school choice and supporting primary challengers to Republicans who oppose school choice,” Cruz explained.
“There were a number of Republicans who opposed school choice. We beat virtually all of them, and this spring, I was down on the floor of the State House actively lobbying House Republicans to pass this bill. We got it done, and it is historic, and that win in Texas is the biggest in any state in history. And then it was combined a couple of months later with the biggest win in the entire country at the federal level.”
As he reflected on the issue, Cruz noted that “every child deserves the right to access an excellent education regardless of that child’s race or wealth or zip code.”
“And the Democrats as a party care more about the money from teachers union bosses than they do about hope and an education for low-income children, low-income Hispanic children, low-income African-American children,” Cruz said.
“The Democrats are willing to sell them down the river,” he added. “They’ve been doing so for decades.”
Despite Cruz’s litany of victories in the first reconciliation package, he told the Reporter that he “will have plenty” more for the next one, should Congress go down that road, as is expected.
Below is a transcript of our interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Senator Cruz, thanks for talking today — let’s start with the obvious here about 529s and school choice in reconciliation, which were huge priorities of yours. Why did you want to put these in reconciliation?
Sen. Ted Cruz:
Because reconciliation was the single most effective vehicle to accomplish our legislative agenda. Friday night, President Trump had the Senate Republicans to the White House for a celebratory dinner to celebrate the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. Heidi and I went, had dinner with the president, and we celebrated an historic victory. And without exaggeration, there are more conservative victories in this One Big, Beautiful Bill than in any piece of legislation that has ever passed into law in the history of our country.
Washington Reporter:
What do you make of the fact that every single Democrat voted against this bill? In so doing, not only are they opposing your provisions on school choice expansion, but they also, if they had had their way, would have allowed the largest tax increase in history. What’s going on with them?
Sen. Ted Cruz:
The Democrats have become a radicalized fringe party. They are the party of open borders. They are the party of bringing to America more criminal illegal aliens and violent Venezuelan gang members. They are the party of allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports. They are the party of sterilizing and mutilating little boys and little girls in gender transition surgeries. They’re the party of abolishing police and of abolishing ICE, and they’re the party of massively raising taxes. Every Democrat voted for a $4 trillion tax increase, which would have happened if we had not passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill, the party of Comrade Zohran Mamdani, the communist running for Mayor of New York City, and I’ll tell you on the issue of school choice, it shows just how crass they are. School choice is, I believe, the civil rights issue of the 21st century; every child deserves the right to access an excellent education regardless of that child’s race or wealth or zip code. And the Democrats as a party care more about the money from teachers union bosses than they do about hope and an education for low income children, low income Hispanic children, low income African American children. The Democrats are willing to sell them down the river. They’ve been doing so for decades. In this bill, we passed the single most far reaching federal school choice legislation that has ever been enacted. One provision, which I wrote, creates a federal tax credit for every taxpayer in America. You can give up to $1,700 a year to a scholarship granting organization in the states, and you get a dollar for dollar tax credit on your federal income taxes. That provision will produce billions and billions of dollars of scholarship money in the states for K-12 education, and it is transformational federal school choice legislation. On top of that, a different provision that I wrote and that passed into law in this bill expands college 529 savings accounts. Now a little bit of history on this — the first Trump tax cut in 2017 included an amendment I authored to expand college 529 savings plans to include K-12 education. Previously, you could use these tax advantage accounts to save for college expenses, but not for K-12. In, 2017 my amendment was voted for on the floor of the Senate, and it passed. The vote was 50-50, and the vice president came down at 1 in the morning, broke the tie, and it was at the time, the single most far reaching federal school choice legislation that had ever passed into law until July 4th of 2025 when the One Big, Beautiful Bill was signed into law. Under the 2017 amendment that I passed in the Trump tax cuts, parents and grandparents would save and spend each year up to $10,000 per child per year for K-12 expenses. Well, in the latest bill, we expanded that, so now parents and grandparents can spend up to $20,000 a year. So we doubled the cap on contributions, that enables parents to spend significantly more for K-12 expenses, and we also significantly expanded what they could spend it on. Previously it was limited primarily to tuition for private or religious K-12 schools. Now we added that the money can be used to pay for school curriculum, for books, for tutoring, for standardized testing fees. So it’s all about empowering parents to use tax advantage accounts to meet the educational needs of their kids. It can also be used to pay for educational therapies for kids with disabilities, which is yet another tool to help meet the individualized needs of each child.
Washington Reporter:
In the wake of COVID, have you seen any movement by your Democratic colleagues to shake off the yoke of the teachers unions and side with you on any of these policies you were just talking about that are incredibly consequential to students and families across America?
Sen. Ted Cruz:
Tragically, absolutely zero. In 2017, when my 529 amendment was on the floor, the vote played out in drama real time. At the time, we had 52 Republicans in the Senate. Early on, we lost two Republicans. We lost Susan Collins and we lost Lisa Murkowski. At the time, the Senate floor staff picked up the phone. They called the vice president’s residence. It was past midnight, so Mike Pence was at home at the residence, and they called the residence and said, ‘Mr. Vice President, we just lost Collins and Murkowski. It looks like we need you to break the tie.’ And so the vice president got in the car and the motorcade started heading to the Capitol. As the vote was ongoing, and I was down on the Senate floor tried to whip votes, behind me walks Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, and he votes yes. And there’s an audible gasp in the well of the Senate. And so the Senate floor staff, they picked up the phone, they called the vice president’s residence. They said, ‘well, Mr. Vice President, looks like turns out we don’t need you. We just got Manchin.’ So the Vice President’s motorcade turned around, he started heading back to the residence. Manchin went to his desk, he sat down, and a sea of Democrats descended upon him. Chuck Schumer descended upon him and began yelling at him. I think they were literally beating him with sticks. Five minutes later, Manchin sheepishly walks forward and switches his vote to a no, and so the Senate floor staff, once again, calls the Vice President’s office says, ‘we need your vote. Now, Manchin’s a no,’ the Vice President turns around a second time. It takes about 20 minutes to get from the Naval Observatory, which is the vice president’s residence, to the Capitol. 20 minutes later, Mike Pence walked onto the floor, centered the dias and said, ‘the ayes being 50, the nays being 50, the Senate being equally divided, the Presiding Officer votes in the affirmative. The amendment is adopted,’ and with those words, we passed into law what was at the time the most far reaching federal school choice legislation that had ever passed. Fast forward to COVID. During COVID, when you had schools shut down all across America, I introduced an amendment on the Democrats’ big COVID, multi-billion dollar spending bill, and the Democrats at this time, were sending tens of billions of dollars to schools across the country. And my amendment was very simple. It said, if schools are open and if they’re teaching kids, they get all this new money the Democrats are sending. But if schools are closed, if they are not teaching children in person five days a week, and the schools get all the old money that they got yesterday, but the new tens of billions of dollars that the Democrats are shoveling out the door, they don’t get that and instead, that new money goes in the form of $10,000 scholarships to parents, because if their public school is shut down and is refusing to educate their kids, the parents will have the tools to be able to go to some other school that actually will teach their kids. I’ll tell you, it was stunning. We got every Republican to vote in favor of my amendment, but every Democrat voted no in the Senate. It was 50-50, and I went to Joe Manchin, and I said, ‘Joe, remember those glorious five minutes when you stood with the kids of America and you voted in favor of giving them hope and opportunity. You voted for their civil rights, you voted for their future.’ And Joe said, ‘I just can’t do it.’ If a single Democrat had voted with us, we could have provided hope and a lifeline to the tens of millions of kids who, for more than a year, had their schools shut down, and by the way, the educational damage done to kids from the Democrats’ COVID shutdowns produced the greatest learning loss ever recorded, they also grew the racial learning gap by more than has ever occurred in our nation’s history. In other words, the Democrats, by shutting down schools, hurt children across America, but in particular, they hurt low income kids. They hurt African American kids, hurt Hispanic kids, and not a single Democrat cared, because all that matters to them on this issue is millions and millions of dollars for the teachers union bosses.
Washington Reporter:
Texas Republicans, on the other hand, have shifted drastically towards school choice in recent years. What do you make of that very rapid shift, and one that happened in not a lot of time?
Sen. Ted Cruz:
Well, look, it was an historic victory. Texas passed the largest state school choice program in the country earlier this year, and I was very actively involved in that. For the last six years, I have engaged in Republican primaries in the state of Texas, in the State House and in the State Senate, supporting candidates who support school choice and supporting primary challengers to Republicans who oppose school choice. There were a number of Republicans who oppose school choice. We beat virtually all of them, and this spring, I was down on the floor of the State House actively lobbying House Republicans to pass this bill. We got it done, and it is historic, and that win in Texas is the biggest in any state in history. And then it was combined a couple of months later with the biggest win in the entire country at the federal level.
Washington Reporter:
Do you have anything for the second next reconciliation you want to get in? Or did you get everything you want in the first one?
Sen. Ted Cruz:
We will have plenty for the next one.
