S. 1244 — Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act of 2025

This section establishes a Military Education Savings Account (MESA) program under Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Impact Aid), under which the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, deposits funds into accounts for eligible military dependent children (at parental request) to pay for qualified educational services (e.g., private elementary/secondary schools including religious ones, online programs, tutoring). The program requires parental agreements to provide core-subject instruction and forgo full-time public school enrollment; approves applications year-round via standardized forms; provides automatic renewals except for opt-outs or misuse; and deposits $6,000 per child in the first year (indexed annually to the Chained CPI thereafter). If funds are insufficient, the Secretary prioritizes renewals (with transfer authority from other Department of Education accounts, exempt from reprogramming rules), followed by a lottery favoring siblings of existing MESA children, then children of enlisted members, warrant officers, and commissioned officers.

This section authorizes appropriations of $1.2 billion for military education savings accounts in FY2026 and, for each fiscal year thereafter, the prior year's amount increased by the percentage change in the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (i.e., Chained CPI-U, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). These funds support the military education savings accounts program established under section 7012A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.