Ashling Preston on New York’s Opt-In, Treasury’s New Rules, & Implementing the Education Freedom Tax Credit

Well, we had great news coming out of New York at the end of last week, an announcement that the governor of New York ha- is standing strong against union opposition, and she has made a statement once again, but this is the confirming statement, that she plans to opt in New York to the Education Freedom Tax Credit.

So can you update us a little on what's happening there, what the significance is, and, and just remind listeners what opting in means?

Right.

So the opting in concept was not something that was initially planned as part of the law, but came in for a variety of, of kind of parliamentary reasons in the Senate.

But what we know is that in order for a state's children to receive scholarships, the governor has to formally opt in.

Now, opting in, it's literally filling out a one-page tax form and sending it back to Treasury.

So you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops here.

You, you sign your name on a one-page form, and then hundreds of millions of dollars get to flow into your state, or in the case of New York, potentially billions flow into your state.

So seems like a pretty easy trade, seems like a pretty sweet deal if you're a governor who are always interested in increasing education resources and dollars into their state, um, and particularly when it can help- ... all children in your state, and for, you know, it's not sector-specific.

Um, children in all, from all backgrounds are able to benefit.

And that's exactly what Governor Hochul realized.

Um, she realized that children in public schools, children in private schools, children of all kind of income levels are gonna be able to benefit from this opportunity, and she viewed it as just the common sense thing to do, is to bring resources to her state.

And it was something that she had said she was going to do a couple, gosh, a couple of months ago-

Mm-hmm

... uh, but she was waiting to see the regulations, and she saw the regulations.

She said she reviewed them, and is very confident, as we've been saying for a long time, that this really is going to be a, a school choice program, or she, she doesn't call it that, but you know, it's gonna be an opportunity that benefits, um, children across settings.

And so she's like, "I'm happy to bring these dollars to New York," and we're really grateful for her standing strong because as you mentioned, there was a lot of opposition.

She was getting a ton, a ton, a ton of pushback, um, but she did the right thing, and she said, "You know what? This is gonna benefit my constituents and, and the families in my state." And, um, I know you had Dr.

Patrick Graf on the show the other week, and he's estimated that 2.7 million children in New York are gonna be eligible for scholarships because of this really courageous decision by the governor.

So we're just so grateful, um, that she did that, and we hope that it opens the door for a ton of other governors to be able to do that because we know that there's still 20, um, 20 or so governors who are s- still on the fence.

Right, so she's not the first Democratic governor to opt in.

That was, of course, Jared Polis from Colorado, outgoing, going governor there.

And now that we have two though, I feel better about it as far as, like, communicating to the remaining Democratic governors.

You've got coverage, guys.

Governors from two very different parts of the country are saying "Yes," and they're standing strong in the face of really nasty opposition.

Well, we had great news coming out of New York at the end of last week, an announcement that the governor of New York ha- is standing strong against union opposition, and she has made a statement once again, but this is the confirming statement, that she plans to opt in New York to the Education Freedom Tax Credit.

So can you update us a little on what's happening there, what the significance is, and, and just remind listeners what opting in means?

Right.

So the opting in concept was not something that was initially planned as part of the law, but came in for a variety of, of kind of parliamentary reasons in the Senate.

But what we know is that in order for a state's children to receive scholarships, the governor has to formally opt in.

Now, opting in, it's literally filling out a one-page tax form and sending it back to Treasury.

So you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops here.

You, you sign your name on a one-page form, and then hundreds of millions of dollars get to flow into your state, or in the case of New York, potentially billions flow into your state.

So seems like a pretty easy trade, seems like a pretty sweet deal if you're a governor who are always interested in increasing education resources and dollars into their state, um, and particularly when it can help- ... all children in your state, and for, you know, it's not sector-specific.

Um, children in all, from all backgrounds are able to benefit.

And that's exactly what Governor Hochul realized.

Um, she realized that children in public schools, children in private schools, children of all kind of income levels are gonna be able to benefit from this opportunity, and she viewed it as just the common sense thing to do, is to bring resources to her state.

And it was something that she had said she was going to do a couple, gosh, a couple of months ago-

Mm-hmm

... uh, but she was waiting to see the regulations, and she saw the regulations.

She said she reviewed them, and is very confident, as we've been saying for a long time, that this really is going to be a, a school choice program, or she, she doesn't call it that, but you know, it's gonna be an opportunity that benefits, um, children across settings.

And so she's like, "I'm happy to bring these dollars to New York," and we're really grateful for her standing strong because as you mentioned, there was a lot of opposition.

She was getting a ton, a ton, a ton of pushback, um, but she did the right thing, and she said, "You know what? This is gonna benefit my constituents and, and the families in my state." And, um, I know you had Dr.

Patrick Graf on the show the other week, and he's estimated that 2.7 million children in New York are gonna be eligible for scholarships because of this really courageous decision by the governor.

So we're just so grateful, um, that she did that, and we hope that it opens the door for a ton of other governors to be able to do that because we know that there's still 20, um, 20 or so governors who are s- still on the fence.

Right, so she's not the first Democratic governor to opt in.

That was, of course, Jared Polis from Colorado, outgoing, going governor there.

And now that we have two though, I feel better about it as far as, like, communicating to the remaining Democratic governors.

You've got coverage, guys.

Governors from two very different parts of the country are saying "Yes," and they're standing strong in the face of really nasty opposition.