New York Gov. Kathy Hochul seems to be walking a tightrope on education reform.

Last week, she surprised nationwide school choice advocates with her recent announcement to opt New York into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC), the K–12 tax-credit scholarship program codified by the One Big, Beautiful Bill.

However, her support comes with conditions. Although she supports the FSTC’s “potential to help New York students and schools,” Hochul also “awaits information from the federal government on the program,” hoping to avoid anything that resembles “poison pills that could harm New York’s education system.”

But Governor Hochul’s hesitancy is completely unwarranted.

I can attest to the success of programs like FSTC. My state, Pennsylvania, is home to two of the most successful tax-credit scholarship programs: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC). Combined, EITC and OSTC awarded more than 101,000 scholarships last year.

And the vast majority of which went to low- and middle-income households. The average household incomes were about $78,000 for EITC and $56,000 for OSTC — well below the commonwealth’s median household income of $100,557.

After 25 years of EITC and OSTC, this time-tested Pennsylvania experience disproves all the predictable critics of school choice. It empowers working-class families, provides educational opportunities to every type of student and hasn’t hurt........

© Independent Journal Review