The National Education Association (NEA) has launched a Connecticut-specific pressure campaign urging residents to help it block students here from receiving scholarships through a new federal tax-credit program.
Connecticut residents who join the campaign are asked to turn over their names, email addresses, ZIP codes and optional cellphone numbers. In return, the NEA gives them a prewritten message demanding that Gov. Ned Lamont reject what it misleadingly calls “federal voucher funding.”
In a Sept. 3 Facebook post, the NEA claimed the program would “drain revenue from local public education,” leave students “to fall through the cracks” and potentially force taxpayers to “make up the difference.”
The union does not explain what revenue Connecticut schools would lose, which students would fall through the cracks or what financial difference Connecticut taxpayers would have to cover.
More importantly, it omits what Lamont’s decision would actually accomplish. He cannot prevent Connecticut taxpayers from using the new federal credit. However, he can decide whether Connecticut students are allowed to benefit from it.
Beginning in 2027, taxpayers may receive a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit for contributions of up to $1,700 to approved scholarship granting organizations. Those organizations will use the donations to help eligible K-12 students pay for qualified educational expenses.
To qualify, students must be eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school and live in households earning no more than 300% of the area’s median income.
Connecticut must participate before donations eligible for the federal tax credit can fund scholarships for students here.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, any U.S. citizen or resident may claim the credit by donating to an organization on a participating state’s approved list. Federal law requires that organization to use the qualifying contribution for students in the state where it is listed.
If Lamont rejects the program, Connecticut residents could still donate to an approved organization in another participating state and reduce their federal tax liability. Opting out would not add a dollar to Connecticut’s public schools or stop Connecticut taxpayers from claiming the federal credit. It would prevent scholarship organizations from using qualifying contributions to help Connecticut students.
The NEA conveniently leaves all of that out of its messaging.
Instead, the union repeatedly calls the tax credit “federal voucher funding.” But Connecticut would not receive federal money to distribute vouchers. Individual taxpayers would make voluntary donations to nonprofit scholarship organizations and receive federal tax credits in return.
The NEA’s scripted message goes considerably further than its public summary. It tells Lamont that voucher programs are “rife with fraud and waste,” worsen academic results and discriminate against students with disabilities. It predicts that the federal program will largely subsidize tuition for children already attending private schools.
It also claims participation would “siphon money” from public schools while Title I (which supports low-income schools) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) remain underfunded. But Title I and IDEA are federal grants sent to states and school districts, and the scholarship program works differently: a taxpayer gives money to an approved nonprofit and receives a federal tax credit of up to $1,700.
Washington would collect less tax revenue as a result, but the law does not reduce funding for Title I, IDEA, Connecticut’s Education Cost Sharing grants or local school budgets.
The NEA also leaves readers with the impression that private-school families are the program’s only beneficiaries. Federal law says otherwise.
Scholarships may cover private-school tuition, but they may also pay for tutoring, special-needs services, books, supplies, equipment, uniforms, transportation, extended-day programs and certain technology expenses. Those expenses may be connected to public, private or religious schools.
The union notes that approximately 88% of Connecticut students attend public schools as if that were an argument against participating. In reality, that is another reason to opt in. The tax credit can provide meaningful benefits to public-school students and families, expanding access to educational opportunities and support beyond what schools alone can provide.
Its accountability claim is also exaggerated. Federal law requires scholarship organizations to be tax-exempt nonprofits, maintain separate accounts for qualifying contributions and spend at least 90% of their income on scholarships.
They must verify applicants’ household income, serve at least 10 students who do not all attend the same school and refrain from earmarking a donor’s contribution for a particular child. Scholarships cannot go to disqualified insiders, and federal law directs the Treasury Department to establish enforcement, reporting and recordkeeping rules.
Those are the safeguards the NEA leaves out when it attacks the program’s accountability.
Lamont has yet to say no. In a questionnaire submitted to the Connecticut Education Association (CEA), the NEA’s Connecticut affiliate, Lamont called participation “premature at this time” and said he would review the final federal guidance with the CEA once it was released. His office said again in August that Connecticut was awaiting that guidance before making a decision.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, another Democrat backed by teachers unions, reached a different conclusion. Hochul has announced that New York will participate, although it had not completed its formal election as of the Internal Revenue Service’s Sept. 14 list. Her office said the credit could expand opportunities for public- and private-school students without diverting resources from state or local public-school budgets.
Thirty states had formally made advance elections by Sept. 14, according to the IRS. Connecticut was not among them.
The NEA is entitled to oppose private-school choice. But Connecticut residents deserve the full picture before being asked to oppose this opportunity. Lamont cannot stop Connecticut taxpayers from using the federal credit. He can decide whether the resulting scholarships help Connecticut students or children in other parts of the country.
