Statesville family featured at Trump White House school-choice event 

A Statesville pastor and his family took center stage at the White House on Aug. 24, as President Donald Trump marked the start of the school year by touting what he called “the largest ever expansion of school choice” in American history.

Pastor Caleb Griffith; his wife, Jocelyn; and their five children joined Trump at the Rose Garden event alongside US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Two of the Griffith children came to the family through foster care. One has autism, and another has developmental delays, Griffith said.

The children attend Cornerstone Christian Academy in Statesville with help from NC’s Opportunity Scholarship program, which now serves nearly 107,000 students statewide.

“We are blessed to be from a state that offers school choice,” Griffith said. “I personally have seen the benefit of the Opportunity Scholarship for my family and the school my children attend, Cornerstone Christian Academy.”

Griffith said the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit would go further for his family.

“Because of you, Mr. President, and Secretary McMahon, the Education Freedom Tax Credit will give my children access to the services that they need to be successful in the most formational years of their lives,” he said.

“We only get one chance to educate our children, and our children are the future of America,” Griffith added. “The Bible says to train up a child in the way that he should go — and that’s the parents. This allows parents to do that.”

Trump introduced the family after telling the audience, “We want every parent to have the power to send their child to a high-quality school that shares their values.”

North Carolina formally opted into the federal tax-credit program on June 3, when the state Senate voted 30-19 to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of House Bill 87. The House voted 73-46 to override two weeks earlier. Thirty-one states have opted in or announced plans to do so, according to the American Federation for Children.

The program offers a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, starting in January 2027. Scholarships can cover tuition, tutoring, special-education therapies, and transportation for families earning up to 300% of area median income.

Nearly 1.7 million NC students — about 93% — would qualify for scholarships under the program, according to an American Federation for Children analysis, as Carolina Journal reported in July.

“Through the Education Freedom Tax Credit, President Trump has delivered the largest national expansion of education freedom in history,” McMahon said at the Rose Garden event. “It’s no surprise that over half of our nation’s states, both red and blue, have raced to this historic choice option, benefiting families whether their child attends public or private school.”

“Children belong to their parents, not to the federal government,” she added.

Trump pointed to other school-choice measures in the tax law passed last year, including a doubling of annual 529 savings-account withdrawals for K-12 expenses to $20,000, effective this year, and an expansion allowing families to spend 529 funds on home-school costs for the first time.

Questions remain about the tax credit’s rollout in North Carolina. The NC State Education Assistance Authority must maintain the state’s list of approved scholarship-granting organizations and submit it to the US Treasury Department, and Stein has said he wants to steer donations toward public-school organizations — though Treasury guidance previewed in June says states cannot impose requirements stricter than federal law.

Treasury’s proposed regulations are expected by the end of September. Donations become creditable in January, when North Carolina families like the Griffiths could begin seeing the program’s first scholarships.

“Statesville family featured at Trump White House school-choice event ” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.