OPINION:
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis spoke last month at a Harvard Kennedy School conference about how the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit can help public school students meet grade-level academic standards.
Specifically, he said the program can help students access more tutoring and after-school instruction.
It was the most practical, no-frills approach I have ever heard from a politician or educator. No fancy vocabulary, no “innovative” or “21st century” rhetoric. The governor simply outlined a commonsense approach — using more high-quality instruction — to bring children who are academically behind up to grade level.
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The tax credit is a vital tool for improvement. That is why Mr. Polis chose to have his state participate in this voluntary federal program. It is up to each state’s governor to decide whether to opt in, and Mr. Polis made the right choice.
Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul followed through on her previously stated intention to do likewise. The tax credit is a boon to nearly all students, most of whom are enrolled in traditional public schools. New York is now the 31st state to sign on.
Students in these 31 states will benefit from the billions of dollars in annual scholarships the program will generate. Getting more education money in the hands of parents is not and should never be a partisan issue, as Mr. Polis and Ms. Hochul — the only Democratic governors to voluntarily opt into the program thus far — have demonstrated.
Ms. Hochul understands that the tax credit will provide a means to improve academic outcomes. Students can use scholarships to pay for high-impact tutoring and additional instruction — an acute need in New York’s low-income urban school systems.
In the governor’s hometown of Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city, approximately 3 out of 4 schoolchildren fail to meet state reading and math standards. This alarming trend has persisted for at least a generation, with these same 70% to 80% failure rates dating back to the early 2000s.
At this writing, however, children in as many as 19 states may not benefit from the program — unless their respective governors decide by Jan. 1 to participate.
There is hope.
The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit is the only 100% credit in the Internal Revenue Code — a dollar-for-dollar reduction in individual federal income tax liability — for charitable donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations serving students in elementary and secondary education.
Starting in 2027, individuals with any federal income tax liability can donate up to $1,700 annually to scholarship-granting organizations. These, in turn, can award scholarships to students to cover a wide range of qualified educational expenses, including tutoring, tuition at a nonpublic school, extended-day programs, fees, books, supplies, transportation and more.
The tax credit will give parents greater control and direction over their children’s education. The program will also allow teachers to provide more instruction for increased compensation.
Most important, in every participating state, the program will benefit students by providing the additional tools they need to reach grade-level proficiency.
Public schools nationwide should heed Gov. Polis’ prescription and take full advantage of the tax credit by establishing or partnering with scholarship-granting organizations to raise funds from their communities and award scholarships to their students.
With the final federal tax credit regulations now issued, we hope that more Democratic governors will follow their colleagues and take advantage of the tax credit for 2027.
The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit is the nation’s most promising tool for generating parent-directed resources and providing students with more instructional time. It is time for all governors to jettison partisanship and politics and take full advantage of this opportunity by opting their states into it.
• Peter Murphy is vice president at the Invest in Education Foundation.
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