A New Opportunity for Private School Education
By Z. E. Kendall
A new opportunity for student education awaits!
Starting in 2027 in Kentucky, each Kentucky taxpayer can allocate up to $1,700 per year to a Scholarship Granting Organization to support private school education in Kentucky and get a tax break off of it. (Each of those organizations must spend at least 90% of that money on student education.) Unlike with a standard deduction program that simply omits the taxation on a particular amount of income or valuation, this program is a federal tax-credit system. Practically speaking, this means that each dollar you donate in this program will legally go to that Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) rather than to funding Medicare or paying more interest on our federal debt.
However, the new tax credit system does not send money to help out with pre-K. It only covers kindergarten through 12th grade, and the SGO sends the money directly to the schools rather than directly to the families of the students.
The money that you send to the SGOs can pay for any of the following:
School tuition
Academic tutoring (even for public school students)
Special education and therapy services for students with disabilities
Books and school supplies
Computer technology and software for the student's education
Extended day, after-school, and summer academic programs
School-required uniforms and transportation, when required or provided by the school
Starting in 2027, Kentuckians will have up to 20 options for donating to Scholarship Granting Organizations. Some of those organizations will donate to evangelical or protestant schools, some to Jewish schools, some to Catholic schools, some to government schools, and some to a mix.
Accord Kids: This group (https://accordkids.org/) will donate money to AACS private schools. AACS is the American Association of Christian Schools, the main organization that deals with academic excellence competitions for evangelical and protestant Christians in the United States.
ACE Scholarships (acescholarships.org): long-standing organization that helps fund private schools and is tied to the Accelerated Christian Education textbook ciriculum
America Kids First Scholarship Program Inc. / Palmetto Kids First: scholarship granting organization serving private schools from Ohio to South Carolina and every state in between (https://www.americakidsfirst.com)
American Federation for Children Scholarship Fund: serves students attending Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish private schools, and schools that serve special needs kids, all organized into different funds by category (https://afcscholarshipfund.org)
Children’s Scholarship Fund: this is a long-standing granting organization that serves children from low-income families and has expressed a desire to expand into Kentucky with this federal scholarship program and have already committed to moving forward in states like New York, Tennessee, and Texas; so, if you live in Kentucky but your children attend school in Tennessee, you may wish to check out this organization as your SGO (https://scholarshipfund.org)
Christian Education Network (CEN SGO): This group (https://censgo.org/) is associated with the Family Foundation out in Lexington, Kentucky; they will grant scholarships to private schools that agree to their Christian Statement of Faith
Catholic Education Foundation / Catholic Education Opportunity Fund: This group (https://www.catholicopportunity.org) will donate money to Catholic private schools in Kentucky. It is led by Joseph Esser.
Do Gooders for Education: This group (https://dogooders4ed.org/) is based in Lexington, Kentucky and led by Soraya Matthews; we’re not sure which types of schools it wants to cater to yet, but EFTC Credit website suggests public schools and special needs students
Federal Student Scholarship Organization: long-standing organization based out of Atlanta, Georgia and led by David Neyer that partners with more than 130 private schools (https://federalsso.org/about/)
Jewish Education Fund of America / The Opportunity Fund for Jewish Education: This organization will donate money to Jewish day schools (https://jewishopportunity.org)
The Nehemiah Foundation: This organization (https://thenehemiahfoundation.org) serves Christian homeschool students in states that consider homeschools to be private schools (such as Kentucky); it also has a Genesis Fund to help Christian students learning and conducting scientific experiments
The National Scholarship Granting Organization: This organization (https://thenationalsgo.org), based in Nashville, Tennessee, serves all states where an SGO can legally operate; they also provide affiliate scholarship funds for churches civic organizations like the Rotary Club, and businesses; this will enable churches that own particular private schools to be able to pool and direct money to those schools through the SGO; they are allowing their affiliates to determine which schools will receive the scholarship money
Thillen Education Foundation: this organization is based out of Georgia and works with public schools to help students of impoverished families (https://www.thilleneducationfoundation.com)
United Scholarship Fund: this organization is preparing to launch and seems open to serving the whole variety of schools (https://unitedscholarshipfund.com/)
Southeastern Kentucky Faith-Based Scholarship Fund: This London, KY group (https://www.sekyscholarship.org/) already helps to provide money for education of students in Kentucky’s poorest counties in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth, in Christian schools; the board members are Sara Wolfe, Dr. Melanie Callahan, and physician Maria Cristina Atienza; those counties that they serve include Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Pulaski, Rockcastle, and Whitley
Kentucky Education Fund, the statewide fund led by the directors of Kentucky's 15 Area Development Districts; this SGO will send money to public-schools for kids
Special Education Lifeline, a Greenup County nonprofit formed in 2024, will function as an SGO to serve public-schools that educate children with disabilities
KCEOC Community Action Partnership: This is a long-standing southeastern Kentucky community action agency (https://kceoc.org) whose president is Paul Dole; given that they take large amounts of government money, their SGO might be restricted to funding public schools
Reficio Catholic Education Fund (American Catholic Education Fund): This organization (https://www.theacef.org) will also donate money to Catholic private schools
Kentucky Education Freedom: This organization (https://www.kyedfreedom.com/) also wants to launch to serve families in Kentucky; we don’t know much about it1
So, which schools might Accord Kids support sending money to as a Scholarship Granting Organization? Since Accord Kids is tied to AACS, the money would go to AACS schools.
In Kentucky, the private schools that have full AACS accredidation include:
1. Beth Haven Christian School in Louisville, KY
2. Landmark Christian Academy in Louisville, KY
Additional schools that participate in AACS and might be eligible include:
1. North Hardin Christian School at 1298 Rogersville Rd, Radcliff, KY 40160
2. Hardin Chistian Academy at 156 Shelby Ave, Radcliff, KY 40160
3. Faith Baptist Academy at 1008 W Cedar St, Franklin, KY 42134
4. Micah Christian School at 130 Smith Ln, Louisville, KY 40229
5. Northside Christian School at 2214 Bank Street, Louisville, KY 40212
6. Pleasantview Baptist School at 6700 South Hwy 261, Hardinsburg, KY 40143
7. Victory Christian Academy at 7808 Beulah Church Rd, Louisville, KY 40228
In Indiana, the private schools that have AACS accredidation include:
1. Burge Terrace Christian School & Learning Readiness Center in Indianapolis
2. Chapel Hill Christian School in Indianapolis
3. Colonial Christian School in Indianapolis
4. Community Baptist Christian School in South Bend, IN
5. Cornerstone Baptist Academy in Indianapolis
6. Crosspointe Christian Academy in Indianapolis
7. Emmanuel Baptist Academy in Valparaiso, IN
8. Faithway Christian Academy in Evansville, IN
9. Fishers Christian Academy in Fishers, IN
10. Grace Baptist Christian School in Plymouth, IN
11. Hammond Baptist Schools in Schererville, IN
12. Heartland Christian School in New Castle, IN
13. Hebron Christian Academy in Hebron, IN
14. Heritage Hall Christian School in Muncie, IN
15. Indiana Christian Academy in Anderson, IN
16. Plum Creek Christian Academy in Dyer, IN
17. Suburban Christian School in Indianapolis
18. Tabernacle Christian School in Martinsville, IN
If you know a family who lives in Indiana or in Kentucky near the Indiana border with kids attending one of those schools, feel free to let those families know that they can support their local AACS schools through Accord Kids.
Now, the Christian Education Network SGO is built only for Christian K-12 schools. To qualify as a partner school to receive funds through them, that school must:
Be a Christ-centered, Gospel-centered K-12 school, Evangelical or Catholic
Agree to CEN's statement of faith
Operate as a school under state law
Be in a state that has joined the federal program
Signs CEN's partner agreement and names one contact
For those donors that want to donate to private Christian schools through an SGO and want to work with long-standing trusted organizations or organizations associated with them rather than new unaligned organizations, Kentuckians have the following seven options:
Accord Kids (https://accordkids.org/) for AACS private schools
ACE Scholarships (acescholarships.org) for private schools with the Accelerated Christian Education textbook ciriculum
Children’s Scholarship Fund (https://scholarshipfund.org) for low-income families and for Kentucky families with children attending schools in Tennessee
Christian Education Network (https://censgo.org/) for Protestant and Catholic schools
Federal Student Scholarship Organization (https://federalsso.org/about/) for students attending private schools
Reficio Catholic Education Fund (American Catholic Education Fund) (https://www.theacef.org) for Catholic private schools
The Nehemiah Foundation (https://thenehemiahfoundation.org) for Christian homeschool students (note the spelling of the website here: there are two different “Nehemiah Foundations”)
We encourage people to donate to any one of those seven SGOs.
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Citations in addition to individual websites hyperlinked above:
1This information list we have from several sources. Source #1: ETFC Credit Staff. “Eight Groups Have Ffiled to be SGOs in Kentucky.” 21 Sept. 2026. https://eftccredit.com/news/kentucky-eight-groups-declare-sgo-intent-public-special-education-september-2026. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026. Web. Source #2: ETFC Credit Staff. “Find an SGO by state.” https://eftccredit.com/sgos. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026. Web. Source #3: Goodman, Sylvia. “Kentucky groups apply to get new scholarship tax credit. Who will benefit?” Kentucky Lantern. 22 Sept. 2026. https://kentuckylantern.com/2026/09/22/kentucky-groups-apply-to-get-new-scholarship-tax-credit-who-will-benefit/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026. Web.
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