Hartford Courant20%
CT undecided on Trump's 'education freedom' tax credit. Advocates differ on who might benefit 41%
By Livi Stanford51%
8/7/2026, 2:00:15 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Negativity Bias, and Pessimism Bias, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 13.7% saturation with 187 hits. Analysis detected 1,586 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,365 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.8% and a BS Rank of 41% (18,315 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 59.90% of the article peer group.
Gov.
Ned Lamont has yet to announce a decision on whether the state will participate in the first federal tax credit to help families pay for tuition at private schools or academic, tutoring and classroom supplies at public schools.
“Connecticut is awaiting clarity before making a decision on the school scholarship tax credit provision,” said Cathryn Vaulman, director of communications for Lamont in a statement.
“Treasury guidance is expected by the end of September, and there are many open questions that we need answered before determining next steps.”
Several education advocates said the program is akin to voucher tax credit programs in other states, which they view as siphoning funds away from public education.
They also cite concerns about the equity of such a program in ensuring funding for low-income students.
But advocates, including the Connecticut Catholic Conference, argue that the tax credit will help students stuck in "failing schools" attend private schools and improve educational outcomes.
The federal tax credit known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC) was created under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
The program “establishes a new federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions made to a Scholarship Granting Organization,” according to information from the U.S.
Department of Education.
The Department of Education defined SGOs as “nonprofits that accept qualified contributions from individuals and use the funds to provide scholarships for education-related services at private or public schools.”
The U.S.
Department of Education said “students eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school and from a household with income not greater than 300% of the area’s median gross income qualify for a scholarship through the Education Freedom Tax Credit.
Rep.
Jennifer Leeper, a Fairfield Democrat and co-chair of the Education Committee, said in an email that the state needs “clearer guidance on who is a ‘scholarship granting organization,’ what parameters exist around their fee structure and who is eligible for the scholarships.
“If the scholarships are geared toward low income students only, or also eligible for afterschool or summer programs or tutoring, then I think there would be more interest as a state,” she said.
“As of right now, I am concerned that there are not the necessary safeguards around SGOs, and that tax deductions for wealthy families do not serve the interest of Connecticut’s students.”
The federal program is expected to begin in 2027, enabling taxpayers that make donations to SGOs to claim the credit on their 2027 tax return.
There are 31 states that have opted into the program, according to the EFTC website, including New Hampshire and New York.
The website goes on further to say there are 14 states that have yet to decide whether to opt into the program including Maine, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Concerns about EFTC
Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said she hoped the governor would not opt in at this time.
“We don’t even know how it will work other than voucher programs have not been good for public schools in any place where they have been implemented,” she said.
“In Arizona, public school funding has decreased incredibly.
They are calling it a $1,700 tax credit.
That means there will be far less tax money going to the federal government.
The middle or upper middle class will be the ones who benefit from this program.”
Patrice McCarthy, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said that it is premature to opt into something “that most likely will simply result in a drain of resources at the federal level at a time when we need more federal support for education."
AFT Connecticut PreK-12 Divisional Vice President Leslie Blatteau said in an email that “teachers, school support personnel and public education advocates are urging Gov.
Lamont to reject opting into” what she referred to as a "federal school voucher scheme."
“By allowing billions in public revenue to be diverted directly to private and parochial school tuition, this open-ended policy will severely siphon critical funding away from our public schools,” Blatteau said.
“For Connecticut, opting in risks stalling momentum just as we’ve begun making progress in the education aid necessary to keep local neighborhood classrooms fully staffed and resourced."
Michael Morton, deputy executive director and chief of staff for the School + State Finance Project, said the state is still waiting to hear specifications on whether the tax credit could be used in public schools in areas such as tutoring, special education costs and afterschool programs.
He said based on comments from the U.S.
Treasury, the “state will not have the ability to pick and choose what scholarship granting organizations are able to operate in the state.
Morton said the academic gains from voucher programs have been marginal at best.
“It’s actually hindered academic achievement for those students who participated,” he said.
“But we have seen typically in voucher programs the individuals participating tend to be largely white and often it is wealthier individuals taking advantage of it.”
Florida is one of several states that has a federal tax credit program, which has been in place since 2001.
Florida State Sen.
Shevrin Jones, a Miami-Dade county Democrat, said he has seen how the tax credit program has been beneficial for students with disabilities, but overall, he said, there is no data that the tax credit programs result in better outcomes.
“What we do see is these kids that go into these programs end up coming back to the public education system worse off than they were before they went into the option of these tax credit programs,” he said.
He added that Florida already had a system to allow access for individuals who can afford to send their children to such programs.
“If a system was being created that genuinely wanted to provide students with greater opportunities for students who are in need they would have not expanded the program for families who could afford these programs,” he said.
“It’s this elevator approach that the voucher system has moved in that they believe there’s this concerted effort to absolutely eliminate the public school system.
I think this is the start of something dangerous.”
Support for the programs
David Reynolds, associate director of public policy for the Connecticut Catholic Conference, said the conference supports the federal tax credit and believes it is an “innovative idea for helping those that can’t afford a private school, especially youths that may be stuck in a failing school.
“We hope the governor will sign onto it,” he said.
He disagreed that the program would siphon funds away from public education.
“We think that’s a false argument,” he said.
“This is not a voucher program.
It takes private donor money and gives them a tax credit and the scholarship organizations can decide what school they want to support.
And the conference believes most of those scholarship organizations will be focused on lower income students to help them get out of a failing school into a private school where they could excel.”
John Phelan, a retired professor of economics at University of New Haven and a member of a 501(c) organization in Guilford that grants college scholarships, said he believed more than $2 billion per year from the tax credit will go to local schools to potentially help fund special education and textbooks.
The U.S.
Department of Education said, “These scholarships are expected to empower families to select the schools, learning services, supports, or materials best suited to their children’s needs.
“Research indicates that students who receive scholarships to attend a school of choice have improved academic outcomes,” the Department of Education said.
“Across the country, more families than ever will now have access to schools that align with their values and aspirations for their own children,” the department said in a release.
The American Federation for Children, a national group advocating for school choice, highlighted a recent research report from the Urban Institute which found "students who attend private school through a school choice program have significantly better postsecondary outcomes likelier both to attend and graduate from college."
Speakers
12speakers81%attributed speech255writer words
Selected voice
75%flagged-word coverageLeslie Blatteau
97 attributed words8.7% of attributed speech6.7% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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