Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday New York will opt in to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cschool choice\u201d program despite opposition from teachers unions, who fear it will divert money from public schools.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s decision clears the way for New York taxpayers to receive a tax credit for donating to educational groups that offer scholarships.<\/p>\n
Similar programs have primarily supported private schools, although officials in the governor\u2019s office said this credit will support families attending public or private schools.<\/p>\n
The decision comes after the state\u2019s legislative leaders and top unions backing Hochul\u2019s re-election campaign urged her to opt out of the federal program, which Congress and President Donald Trump approved last year as part of the legislative package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n
Teachers unions have said the program will end up diverting families and funds from public schools.<\/p>\n
Michael Mulgrew, president of the city\u2019s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, accused Hochul of \u201ca failure of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Gov. Hochul will bear the responsibility, but our students, educators and families will bear the price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hochul said she believes the program can be used to benefit all schools and students \u2014 not just those attending private schools.<\/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 the governor said in a statement.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cI\u2019m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the program, individuals can get reimbursed up to $1,700, and married couples filing jointly can get reimbursed up to $3,400 for donations made to \u201cscholarship granting organizations.\u201d Those organizations can then give scholarships to students to attend private or religious schools or for educational services, including tutoring and after-school programs. Families making up to 300% of the area median income are eligible.<\/p>\n
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, had lobbied governors across the country urging them to reject the tax credit program.<\/p>\n
The NAACP also fought against the new tax credit, saying it will accelerate flight of wealthier families from public schools and deepen educational inequities and segregation. NAACP officials likened it to white flight from some public schools in the South after the Supreme Court\u2019s desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.<\/p>\n
In recent days, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie issued statements in opposition to the state joining the tax credit program.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York should opt out of the federal voucher program and continue investing in the public schools that educate the overwhelming majority of our children,\u201d said Heastie, a Bronx Democrat.<\/p>\n
But Hochul was undeterred. She had first said she was interested in opting in to the program last spring in a meeting with Agudath Israel of America, a Jewish group supporting religious education. The governor finalized her decision after the federal government issued regulations detailing how the program would work.<\/p>\n
New York state\u2019s Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Ronald Hicks, issued a statement Friday applauding Hochul\u2019s decision. They have long pushed for similar tax credits that encourage what supporters call school choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy opting in to the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, Governor Kathy Hochul is helping to empower New York families to provide the best education for their children, regardless of income or where they choose to send their children to school, at no additional cost to the state,\u201d the bishops said.<\/p>\n
The tax credit will go into effect in January.<\/p>\n
Jessica Gould contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday New York will opt in to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cschool choice\u201d program despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-369572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369572","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=369572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}