The school choice decision putting Democratic governors on the clock

Democratic governors face an end-of-year deadline to join the nation’s first federal school choice program, a decision that could bring massive amounts of money to their states but which opponents fear could severely undermine public schools. 

Thirty-one states have opted into the GOP-passed initiative, but so far, that number includes only two blue ones: Colorado and New York. 

The program, officially called the Education Freedom Tax Credit, was passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. It allows individuals to donate $1,700 to a scholarship-granting organization that awards money to students for private-school tuition and some public school expenses in exchange for a dollar-to-dollar federal tax credit. 

Students from households with an income of less than 300 percent of the area’s gross medium income are eligible, but governors must opt into the program by the beginning of next year for children in their state to receive the scholarships. 

The Trump administration projects the program will grow to $26 billion by 2030, and supporters think more Democratic-run states will sign on after Election Day.

“You have very strong Democrat contributors and political actors who don’t like any kind of educational choice and are standing up against it. The teachers’ unions loom large on this point. It’s a pretty tall order to ask a governor who is reliant upon those donors and those political activists to opt in to participate before the election has run its course,” said Leslie Hiner, senior adviser for legal policy at EdChoice. 

“I wouldn’t........

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