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Putting Democratic governors on the spot
For the last 35 years, America has been, in fits and starts, remolding K–12 schooling into the system we should have had from the start. The federal government’s new school-choice program, the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), is the latest step on this long journey. It could also prove to be the largest, but that will depend on — of all things — Democratic governors.
Under the law, each state’s chief executive has the authority to decide whether to participate. GOP governors, unsurprisingly, got on board swiftly. But most of them lead states that already have one or more school-choice programs; for those places, the EFTC will be more additive than revolutionary. To be a game changer, the program must make inroads into blue states. So far, the Democratic governors who have made a decision about the program (with the exception of Colorado’s Jared Polis and probably New York’s Kathy Hochul) have said, “No, thanks.” (In Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, GOP-controlled legislatures passed laws to override their Democratic governors’ rebuff.)
Continue reading the entire piece here at National Review
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Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his work focuses on education, civil society, and the principles of American conservatism.