{"id":113608,"date":"2026-01-27T05:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113608\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:04:12","slug":"hochul-refuses-to-jump-on-chance-to-help-neediest-ny-students-critics-gripe-but-she-blames-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113608\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul refuses to jump on chance to help neediest NY students, critics gripe — but she blames Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul is refusing to jump at the chance to help some of the state\u2019s neediest students obtain crucial scholarships<\/a>, critics gripe \u2014 but she\u2019s laying the blame on President Trump.<\/p>\n

Under a Republican-led new federal tax-credit scholarship program<\/a> that takes effect next January, taxpayers in participating states will be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $1,700 for the cash contributions they donate to certain scholarship-granting organizations.<\/p>\n

The donations are then used to grant scholarships to students at private and public elementary and secondary schools located within their states. In New York, such donations run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\"GovernorGov. Kathy Hochul has declined to opt New York into a federal tax-credit scholarship program established in President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill. LP Media<\/p>\n

Eligibility for scholarships are limited to students whose family income is below 300% of their area median income.<\/p>\n

New York students can\u2019t benefit unless the governor agrees for the state to opt into the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cKathy Hochul is taking opportunities away from New York children, plain and simple,\u201d said Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman<\/a>, also Nassau County executive on Long Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy refusing to opt into this program, Hochul is blocking access to tutoring, test preparation, transportation, and tuition assistance for New York students, sending education dollars to other states, and telling New York families they get nothing,\u201d Blakeman said.<\/p>\n

He said Hochul\u2019s potential refusal would be especially a blow to Catholic schools and yeshivas that educate tens of thousands of students while grappling with rising costs and declining enrollment.<\/p>\n

\"NassauNassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman accused Hochul of \u201ctaking opportunities away from New York children\u201d by not joining the program. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

He also pointed out the program does not divert taxpayer funding to public schools.<\/p>\n

The tax-credit scholarship program was included in the budget bill approved last year by the Republican-led Congress and Trump.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Hochul\u2019s office said the governor simply still has not yet made a decision on whether to join the program and is awaiting more guidance from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor is open to any proposals that will support our students and schools but given the constantly changing federal funding landscape and the President\u2019s troubling track record, she\u2019ll need to review the program\u2019s guidance and rules which we have still not received from the Trump Administration,\u201d her office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s office also noted that the program doesn\u2019t take effect until the beginning of 2027, so federal money is not currently being blocked by the state, as Blakeman claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul is always going to stand up for students \u2013 meanwhile, Bruce Blakeman almost caused a child care \u2018death spiral\u2019 in his own county and won\u2019t lift a finger to fight back against Donald Trump\u2019s war on New York kids, including his attempts to defund New York schools,\u201d said Hochul campaign rep Ryan Radulovacki.<\/p>\n

Blakeman has opposed Hochul\u2019s multibillion-dollar push for taxpayer-funded childcare, saying it is too costly given the state\u2019s more pressing financial needs.<\/p>\n

New York State Catholic Conference Executive Director Dennis Poust said he expects Hochul will eventually opt in to the federal tax-credit program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be crazy not to. We really think it\u2019s a no-brainer,\u201d Poust said.<\/p>\n

But agreeing with Trump on even a \u201cno-brainer\u201d is a political hot potato for Democratic governors such as Hochul who are seeking re-election this fall and fighting the White House on other fronts.<\/p>\n

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor thus far who said he would opt his state into the program.<\/p>\n

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Arne Duncan, the education secretary under former Democratic President Barack Obama, endorsed the program and said Democrats\u2019 hesitance is misplaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy opting in, a governor unlocks these resources for students in their state. \u2026Opting in doesn\u2019t take a single dollar from state education budgets,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt simply opens the door to new, private donations, at no cost to taxpayers, that can support students in public and nonpublic settings alike. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why opting in isn\u2019t just defensible, it\u2019s a no-brainer,\u201d Duncan said in a November Washington Post column co-written with Jorge Elorza, CEO of Education Reform Now and former mayor of Providence, RI.<\/p>\n

But sources said Hochul also may be wary of offending powerful teachers\u2019 unions by opting into the scholarship program.<\/p>\n

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten blasted the tax credit as a \u201cpermanent school voucher scheme\u201d when commenting on the program in a Dec. 22 letter to the IRS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be working to strengthen, not abandon, our public schools,\u201d wrote Weingarten, who used to head the AFT New York City teachers\u2019 union local.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul is refusing to jump at the chance to help some of the state\u2019s neediest students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1626,6788,67,426,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,13895,33635,6854,58],"class_list":["post-113608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-donations","tag-education","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-ny-governor-election-2026","tag-scholarships","tag-tax-credits","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}