Governor Kathy Hochul surprised many in May by announcing her intention to sign New York State up for the One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax credit for Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). The program gives taxpayers a credit of up to $1,700 for donations to SGOs, which can then use the money to provide scholarships, tutoring, or other educational expenses to families with incomes up to 300 percent of their area’s median gross income—all at no cost to the state.
Less surprising: teachers’ unions in New York State are pressuring Governor Hochul to walk back her commitment. “Essentially what this is doing is using taxpayer dollars to fund private school education,” said New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person. She called public schools “the great equalizer” in building a democratic society and argued that Americans should not be “separating” into religious schools, whether Islamic, Catholic, or Jewish. “It’s a retreat from the pluralistic society,” Person said. “The whole idea is we all go together. If we all start separating everyone, what is the impact on our country, on our democracy?”
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Governor Hochul should ignore arguments like these and stick to her original commitment. Person’s assertions are at odds with both America’s history and the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom.
To begin with, public schools were rare at the time of the American Founding. The public education system as we know it didn’t emerge until the mid-nineteenth century. Through the post-World War II years, it evolved to include compulsory education through high school and, more recently, voluntary pre-kindergarten services.
Moreover, Person’s argument that religious schooling threatens democracy echoes the anti-Catholic prejudices and accusations of dual loyalty that forced our first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, to assure people of his allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. Since then, we have had a second Catholic president (Biden) and a Catholic vice president (J. D. Vance); now we even have an American pope, Leo XIV, educated in Chicago’s own Catholic schools. Person ignores all this, while managing to slight Jewish and Islamic families as well. The time has long passed for doubting whether religious schools of any faith can produce good stewards of our democratic institutions.
Person’s statement is also inconsistent with New York State’s policy of public support for academic intervention, mandated services, specialized teachers, and other supplemental services. Albany has long recognized the public benefit provided by private and religious schools. For the record, 417,806 students enrolled in private schools in New York State this past school year. The largest share attended Jewish schools, accounting for 46 percent of the total, with Catholic schools serving about 27 percent, independent (prep) schools 19 percent, and Islamic schools about 1.5 percent.
Hochul is one of only two Democratic governors to announce an intention to opt in to the tax credit program. The nonprofit group Education Reform Now estimates that if New York State doesn’t sign on, children and families could lose out on anywhere from $50 million to $760 million.
Yet, the state’s teachers’ unions are pressing Hochul to say no to that federal money, prioritizing public school monopoly control of K-12 education over a true affordability initiative for New York’s families.
Saying yes to the federal tax credit will not reduce funding for New York’s public schools. Nor will it empty them of students—the state’s declining population and dissatisfaction with district schools are already doing that.
Private education, including religious education, is not the enemy of democracy; it will continue to be a vital part of our pluralistic nation. Governor Hochul should stand firm and support this pro-family, pro-democracy, and pro-religious liberty initiative.