Three Democratic governors are reconsidering their stances after earlier saying they wouldn’t opt their states in to the first federal program that will direct taxpayer funds to families so their children can enroll in private schools.
Govs. Josh Green of Hawaii, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, and Tina Kotek of Oregon previously told Education Week they wouldn’t participate in the school choice expansion included in President Donald Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed Congress last summer.
But since their offices made those initial statements—Green’s office in January and Lujan Grisham’s and Kotek’s offices last August—Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, has become a vocal champion for the program that will go live next year, and pressure campaigns to get Democratic states to participate have ramped up both locally and nationally, including from the White House.
In Hawaii, a group of Republican lawmakers wrote to Green last month urging him to opt in. A spokesperson for Green’s office said Tuesday the governor “takes this letter from the minority caucus very seriously.
“Our team is in the process of once again reviewing the program to determine if anything has changed since the last review.”
In New Mexico, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman said Wednesday, “We are seeking more federal guidance on the use of these dollars before making a final decision.”
And in Oregon, a spokesperson for Kotek said Tuesday that the governor “has not determined” whether the state will participate and will await final regulations from the U.S. Treasury Department before deciding.
“Details are important,” said spokesperson Kevin Glenn. “If this new federal program is designed poorly, it could enable discrimination and make it harder for all children to succeed.”
Under the new law, individual taxpayers can claim a dollar-for-dollar, federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to nonprofit organizations that then award scholarships K-12 students can use to attend private schools.
Governors each year must tell the IRS they’re opting in before nonprofits can give out the tax-credit-backed scholarships in their states.
The money can also cover some expenses for public school students, such as tutoring and after-school programs, but those costs are likely to amount to less than private school tuition bills.
“You need a permission structure, and so Jared Polis opened the door for that permission for other Democrats to opt in as well,” said Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who has been advocating for governors to participate. “Once you get a certain number of them opting in, it’ll be like dominoes falling, and we’ll have every state opt in at some point.”
If Democratic governors don’t opt in, DeAngelis said, taxpayers in their states can still donate to scholarship-granting organizations, but they’d have to donate to out-of-state organizations. And since the federal government is bankrolling the credits, local school budgets aren’t directly affected, he said.
“It doesn’t even touch any federal funding for the public school system,” DeAngelis said. “It’s just additional charitable contributions that can come into the state for the purposes of school choice.”
But Democratic governors should be wary of those arguments, said Jessica Levin, the litigation director for the Education Law Center, which has led lawsuits pressing states for equitable school funding and is part of a coalition of public school advocates that has been urging governors not to participate in the tax-credit scholarship program.
Despite the funding through federal tax credits, local school budgets would still be affected as students leave for private schools, since states typically base school funding on enrollment. Public schools’ fixed costs would remain, even as funding leaves with departing students, Levin said.
“Part of this is trying to force vouchers into states that have rejected them. Legislatures haven’t voted for them, their people don’t want them, so that is a perversion of how we should make policy,” she said.
Even if some voucher funds flow to public school students, Levin said, “it would be like taking one step forward, two steps back in terms of resources for public schools.”
More than half of governors are opting in
So far, 28 governors have either formally opted in by submitting paperwork to the IRS or have indicated they will, with only one Republican governor—Phil Scott of Vermont—still to commit to the program.
Green, Lujan Grisham, and Kotek were among four Democrats who initially said no when Education Week contacted the governors of all 50 states to ask for their positions.
Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin was the other Democrat, and a spokesperson said Tuesday the governor hasn’t changed his position since last fall. The Republican-controlled legislature there recently passed a bill that would opt the state in.
Other Democratic governors who have responded to EdWeek’s inquiries have said they’re awaiting IRS regulations expected in the coming months to flesh out more specifics on the program before making decisions.
So far, the federal tax credit is on track to bring taxpayer-backed private school funding to four states that don’t already have it.
Congress put no budget cap on the program, but it’s still uncertain how many taxpayers will contribute to scholarship-granting organizations and how much they’ll give.
Congressional scorekeepers have estimated the federal government will issue $500 million in tax credits next year as the program gets off the ground. By 2034, they project $4.4 billion will come out of what taxpayers owe to the federal government and flow instead to scholarship-granting organizations. (By comparison, Title I grants to school districts—aimed at disadvantaged students—now total about $18 billion annually.)
