OPINION:
Last week, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association sent an open letter urging Democratic governors to reject the education freedom tax credit.
The attacks on school choice are familiar: Call it a voucher, invoke segregation, warn of fiscal doom and repeat until the governors cave.
I lead the Children’s Tuition Fund, which has provided scholarships since 2012 to families seeking better educational options for their children. Last year, we granted $15 million in scholarships to more than 3,500 well-deserving students.
I know what this program really does, and you should too.
First, let us be clear: The education freedom tax credit is not a voucher. A traditional voucher is a government payment to a private school or a parent. The tax credit works differently.
In it, private individuals make charitable contributions to nonprofit scholarship organizations such as our Children’s Tuition Fund and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit against their federal tax liability, up to $1,700.
No government appropriation goes to a private school. No public school loses a dollar in its operating budget. The credit runs through the U.S. Treasury, not the Department of Education. Families receive funds raised by private contributors who choose to redirect what they would have owed in taxes.
The unions know this. They use the “V”-word because it polls worse than “scholarship” or “tax credit.”
Yet that tactic is losing steam because Americans have wised up to the distinction, and the support for school choice is overwhelming.
A September 2025 poll found that 73% of Americans believe school choice should be available to all families. A January 2025 survey showed that 81% agree that the U.S. should empower parents to find the best education for their children.
Research shows durable, cross-partisan support for educational choice in one of the rarest achievements in modern politics. Majorities of Republicans (77%), independents (58%) and Democrats (62%) support school choice tax credits.
This is not a partisan issue. It is a parental rights issue. Democratic governors are already recognizing this. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called opting in a “no-brainer.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently made her state the 30th to participate.
Both looked at a program that costs their states nothing, serves working- and middle-class families and decided that their constituents deserved to benefit.
The unions’ letter claims that the education freedom tax credit subsidizes families already in private schools. That is false. The program reaches roughly 90% of American students, regardless of income, and is open to both public and private school students. It is a pathway for families of modest means to access schools that fit their children’s needs.
What is even more alarming is that these unions claim that opting into the education freedom tax credit would do so at the expense of students. The opposite is true.
By failing to opt in, Democratic governors would be giving away money that their taxpayers have already contributed. Every taxpayer in every state may claim the education freedom tax credit, but only students in opt-in states receive scholarships.
That is why Mr. Polis declared that Colorado would actively pursue scholarship dollars from states that do not participate.
The unions also ignored the bill text, which specifies that public school students may receive scholarships for tutoring, technology, transportation and other needs. So the unions that falsely decry loss of funding do not want Democratic governors to participate in a program that can increase funding for the public schools they claim to represent.
The education freedom tax credit is a win-win for everyone. The unions also warn of “well-documented harms” from choice programs, but the empirical record tells a different story. Research consistently shows that when families can choose their children’s schools, academic outcomes improve, parents become more involved, and families report greater satisfaction.
This is not ideology. It is the result of two decades of scholarship programs in states that have proved their success.
Democratic governors face a choice: Either take marching orders from wealthy union leadership in Washington, or follow Mr. Polis’ and Ms. Hochul’s lead and recognize that giving every child a chance is not a partisan idea but an American one.
The unions’ playbook is running out of pages. Governors should opt in and let families decide what is best for their children.
• Temple Weiss is president of the ACSI Education Foundation and oversees the ACSI Children’s Tuition Fund, a nonprofit scholarship-granting organization operating in all 50 states.
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