Income Tax Sparks Confusion Over Rules & Enforcement + WA May Miss Out on $700M in Education Funding

Now, the US Department of Treasury has issued long-awaited rules for how the Education Freedom Tax Credit is going to work.

This is as about 27 states, I believe it is, have opted in, but Washington State is not among them.

Now, those regulations, which came out from Treasury on October the 1st, confirm that married couples, uh, filing jointly can claim each of them that $1,700 tax credit for a total of $3,400 tax credit, and then direct that money into these organizations, these scholarship granting organizations that are set, getting set up in the states that have opted in.

Washington has not yet done so.

So at this point, what it means is you'll still be able to take the tax deduction.

If ultimately we don't opt into the program, we can then take our $1,700, uh, tax credit and direct that into another state, uh, find a scholarship granting organization doing great work or that we believe in in one of the states, say like Mississippi, that's improving student test scores while ours are still struggling.

That's how that would work.

Now, um, the former US Education Secretary under President Obama, you may remember a gentleman by the name of Arne Duncan.

He took part in a recent webinar with Washington Policy Center hosting that, and basically urged, now he's a Democrat, he urged our Democratic governor, Bob Ferguson, to opt in.

He basically said it's a no-brainer, and we'd be really dumb not to take advantage of this program.

Th- there are very, very few states that are really accelerating student progress these days, and I'm always very honest for better or worse.

I don't think there are any states, any of our western states, where we're seeing real progress, you know, on the NAEP or on PISA.

Um, there is a handful of southern states that are moving the needle for kids, Mississippi being at the front of that, but other states as well, Alabama, Louisiana.

And there's an acceptance of a status quo now in our country where tens of millions of kids are too far behind, and that, that just terrifies me, honestly.

If we're gonna compete to keep high-wage, high-skill jobs in our country, we have to have the best educated workforce.

We know all the challenges coming with job loss and AI and other things, so now more than ever, we have to be accelerating student learning, and that is not happening in the vast majority of our states, and very candidly, it's not happening in, in our state, in Washington, in this state.

So we either accept that and just say we're gonna let a lot of kids be way too far behind and lock them out of the economy and sort of condemn them to poverty, social failure, or we can try and accelerate their learning.

And we know how to accelerate learning.

Lots of things in education we can keep studying.

We know high-dosage tutoring works.

We know more time works.

We know more after-school, summer school, Saturday works for kids that, that are struggling and behind.

Money's always tight everywhere.

Um, a- as you guys made clear, you know, $700 million, I would say ideally minimally, it could be north of a billion dollars, and that, to be clear, is on top of state and local money.

It doesn't replace a single dollar.

Now, the US Department of Treasury has issued long-awaited rules for how the Education Freedom Tax Credit is going to work.

This is as about 27 states, I believe it is, have opted in, but Washington State is not among them.

Now, those regulations, which came out from Treasury on October the 1st, confirm that married couples, uh, filing jointly can claim each of them that $1,700 tax credit for a total of $3,400 tax credit, and then direct that money into these organizations, these scholarship granting organizations that are set, getting set up in the states that have opted in.

Washington has not yet done so.

So at this point, what it means is you'll still be able to take the tax deduction.

If ultimately we don't opt into the program, we can then take our $1,700, uh, tax credit and direct that into another state, uh, find a scholarship granting organization doing great work or that we believe in in one of the states, say like Mississippi, that's improving student test scores while ours are still struggling.

That's how that would work.

Now, um, the former US Education Secretary under President Obama, you may remember a gentleman by the name of Arne Duncan.

He took part in a recent webinar with Washington Policy Center hosting that, and basically urged, now he's a Democrat, he urged our Democratic governor, Bob Ferguson, to opt in.

He basically said it's a no-brainer, and we'd be really dumb not to take advantage of this program.

Th- there are very, very few states that are really accelerating student progress these days, and I'm always very honest for better or worse.

I don't think there are any states, any of our western states, where we're seeing real progress, you know, on the NAEP or on PISA.

Um, there is a handful of southern states that are moving the needle for kids, Mississippi being at the front of that, but other states as well, Alabama, Louisiana.

And there's an acceptance of a status quo now in our country where tens of millions of kids are too far behind, and that, that just terrifies me, honestly.

If we're gonna compete to keep high-wage, high-skill jobs in our country, we have to have the best educated workforce.

We know all the challenges coming with job loss and AI and other things, so now more than ever, we have to be accelerating student learning, and that is not happening in the vast majority of our states, and very candidly, it's not happening in, in our state, in Washington, in this state.

So we either accept that and just say we're gonna let a lot of kids be way too far behind and lock them out of the economy and sort of condemn them to poverty, social failure, or we can try and accelerate their learning.

And we know how to accelerate learning.

Lots of things in education we can keep studying.

We know high-dosage tutoring works.

We know more time works.

We know more after-school, summer school, Saturday works for kids that, that are struggling and behind.

Money's always tight everywhere.

Um, a- as you guys made clear, you know, $700 million, I would say ideally minimally, it could be north of a billion dollars, and that, to be clear, is on top of state and local money.

It doesn't replace a single dollar.