{"id":369380,"date":"2026-10-09T23:42:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369380\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T23:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:42:51","slug":"gov-hochul-opts-ny-into-trumps-federal-school-voucher-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369380\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul opts NY into Trump\u2019s federal school voucher program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Hochul on Friday said New York will participate in President Trump\u2019s school voucher program, setting up a clash with the teachers unions and elected officials that vehemently oppose it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Democratic governor first voiced support<\/a> for the GOP-led program, which is structured as a federal tax credit, in May, but said her office was waiting for final regulations to ensure there were no \u201cpoison pills\u201d before New York legally opted in. Those rules were published last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a careful review of the federal regulations, we believe this program has the potential to bring millions of additional dollars to New York students and families without taking a single dollar from public schools or our state or local budgets,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office confirmed it will notify the federal government of its election in the coming weeks, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Under the federal scholarship tax credit program, American taxpayers are eligible for dollar-for-dollar credits of up to $1,700 for donations to nonprofit organizations, which grant scholarships to students.<\/p>\n

Families can use the scholarships to pay for private and religious school tuition, making it effectively the first national school choice program in the United States. But unlike traditional voucher programs, the grants may also be used at public schools<\/a>, including for tutoring, after-school, yellow buses, special education and other school expenses.<\/p>\n

In order for a state\u2019s students to benefit from the scholarships, the federal government requires that its governor opt into the program. Charitable taxpayers can receive the credit regardless of whether their state opts in.<\/p>\n

But the plan\u2019s critics have expressed reservations<\/a>\u00a0it could reduce funding and siphon resources from public schools, if current students transfer to private and religious schools with the financial assistance of the scholarships. It may also subsidize wealthier families \u2014 who earn up to 300% of the area\u2019s median income, or $309,000 in New York City<\/a> \u2014 who are already paying for private school tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving up local control of public education to the federal government through the Trump administration\u2019s private school voucher scheme is a failure of leadership,\u201d Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. \u201cGov. Hochul will bear the responsibility, but our students, educators and families will bear the price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulgew added he and his allies are \u201cgoing to continue to do what we can to roll back this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UFT<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Richard Drew<\/p>\n

UFT President Michael Mulgrew. (AP Photo\/Richard Drew)<\/p>\n

With the governor\u2019s support, New York will become the 31st state to opt into the program, and Hochul only the second Democratic governor to do so, after Colorado\u2019s Gov. Jared Polis, according to Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a national organization that supports the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGov. Hochul understands that the way to make this program work for the kids who need it most is to be at the table shaping it,\u201d said Arne Duncan, a senior fellow at DFER and former U.S. secretary of education. \u201cThanks to her courageous decision, students across the Empire State will have a new way to access K-12 resources next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s official decision came one day after state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli<\/a>\u00a0raised concerns about the program, and called on the governor to reject it. Last spring, 15 Democratic Congress members from New York also opposed the program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been clear from the start,\u201d Hochul said, \u201cthat New York would participate in the federal scholarship tax credit program if, and only if, all schools and students, including those in our public schools, could benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor added that she engaged business leaders who \u201ccommitted\u201d to use the program to support public school students, and pledged to work with education leaders to ensure that the resources \u201creach students\u201d across New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The federal scholarship tax credit program starts in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul on Friday said New York will participate in President Trump\u2019s school voucher program, setting up a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[67,136405,862,426,75,84,83,9,24,49,63,136406,136407,18508,209,101025,1069],"class_list":["post-369380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-education","tag-federal-school-choice","tag-governor","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-nyc","tag-opt-in","tag-parochial-schools","tag-private-schools","tag-public-schools","tag-school-vouchers","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369380","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=369380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}