{"id":365652,"date":"2026-10-06T08:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/365652\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:28:32","slug":"kathy-hochuls-school-choice-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/365652\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Hochul\u2019s School Choice Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service published regulations<\/a> explaining how the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program will work. The program, established as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, gives taxpayers a credit for donating to certified \u201cscholarship granting organizations\u201d (SGOs), which then use the money to fund either private school tuitions or tutoring and other educational expenses for public school students.<\/p>\n

Starting on January 1, 2027, the program could reach 11 million donors and raise $26 billion in scholarships by 2030, according to official estimates<\/a>. In so doing, it could expand school choice in states that still don\u2019t have local programs allowing parents to choose the best education for their kids. Currently, 30 states<\/a> have opted in to the program, including five with Democratic governors.<\/p>\n

Finally, a reason to check your email.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our free newsletter today.<\/p>\n

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has said<\/a> that she intends to opt in, too, but was waiting for the regulations to be published. Commendably, she made this commitment even as the teachers\u2019 union launched an aggressive campaign aiming to change her decision. Now the regulations are available, and it\u2019s time for Hochul to keep her word.<\/p>\n

The new regulations contain several pieces of good news for parents. First, married couples filing jointly can now redirect up to $3,400 of their federal tax liability to scholarship-granting organizations. Second, the regulations clarify that states opting in to the program cannot impose requirements on scholarship-granting organizations in addition to the federal law. That means governors won\u2019t be able to limit eligibility.<\/p>\n

Students attending any type of school are eligible as long as their household\u2019s income is below 300 percent<\/a> of their area\u2019s median gross income. In New York, this would mean an annual-income<\/a> cutoffs of $309,000 in Bronx County or $510,000 in Westchester County.<\/p>\n

More than 2.7 million students could be eligible<\/a> for these scholarships, making New York the state with the fourth-largest student population of eligible recipients. Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-SGO group, estimates<\/a> that 30 percent of New York taxpayers could raise more than $1.5 billion for scholarships. (DFER released these estimates before the regulations were issued, so the total would be even higher with the married-couple allowance.)<\/p>\n

For New York, the SGO credit could be a lifeline for students struggling to receive a basic education in their current schools. The last state test results showed<\/a> that 52 percent of students in grades 3\u20138 are not reading at grade level. Forty-three percent can\u2019t do math at grade level.<\/p>\n

The program will allow the families of these children either to apply for a scholarship to a different school or use the funds to supplement schooling with additional educational opportunities. Children\u2019s Scholarship Fund President Darla Ronfo has said<\/a> that offering enhanced tutoring to all fourth-graders in New York reading below grade level would cost $1,500 per student; this new program could support that.<\/p>\n

Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is working to convince the 20 states that have declined to opt in to the program not to waste this opportunity and let their residents\u2019 donations go to other states. At a Manhattan Institute event in New York City last week, he reminded<\/a> the audience that parents have a constitutional right to direct their kids\u2019 education: \u201cThe Supreme Court has come back time and time and time again that these are parents\u2019 fundamental rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor Hochul\u2019s education legacy is in jeopardy. During her tenure, the education budget has ballooned<\/a> to $40 billion per year with no gains in academic outcomes for students; New York lowered<\/a> its state test standards; and the state recently eliminated<\/a> the high school exam.<\/p>\n

Opting in to the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program offers a chance for an about-face. If Hochul keeps her promise, New Yorkers will remember her as the governor who helped expand educational opportunities for the state\u2019s neediest students.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n

City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and City Journal are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service published regulations explaining how the new Federal Scholarship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-365652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365652","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=365652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}