Twenty-seven states have accepted a new federal scholarship tax credit program, offering free tutoring, special education services, and expanded learning options to public school students, but Senate Democrats are divided over whether to embrace it. The program, which costs states nothing and is fully funded by the federal government, has already been implemented in states such as Arizona, Florida, and Ohio, according to the Senate HELP Committee report.

Sen. Sanders urges states to reject the program

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has urged states to reject the federal scholarship tax credit program, calling it a voucher system that undermines public education, despite the program’s design to support students within public schools. In a report released by the Senate HELP Committee, Sanders argued that the program should be rejected, a stance that contrasts sharply with his previous advocacy for accepting federal funding for Medicaid expansion.

For over a decade after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Democrats criticized Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid, arguing that rejecting federal funds for working families was an illegitimate political stance. Sanders himself was among the most vocal critics of such resistance.

“This is a federal program, which costs zero dollars,” Sanders said in 2013, criticizing Republicans who rejected Medicaid expansion. He was right then. Refusing federal dollars to help struggling families was indefensible, and the same logic applies today, according to education advocates.

Program strengthens public education, not weakens it

The scholarship tax credit program is not a voucher program, as Sanders claims. It allows scholarship-granting organizations to fund tutoring, curriculum, technology, transportation, and special education services for students who remain enrolled in public schools.

A student struggling in math can receive targeted tutoring. A child with a disability can access specialized services their district cannot provide. A rural student can enroll in virtual courses unavailable locally. These supports strengthen public education, not dismantle it, according to education experts.

Sanders’s report barely acknowledges this reality, making a passing reference to public school students being eligible and then proceeding as if the program exclusively serves students who leave public schools. That omission is not a minor oversight. It fundamentally misrepresents how the program works.

The report also argues that private school tuition remains out of reach for many working-class families. In some cases, that is true. But that is not an argument for rejecting the program. It is an argument for strengthening it. When Medicaid expansion proved insufficient, Democrats did not call for repeal. They fought to expand coverage further. The same logic applies here. If funding levels are too low, the answer is to improve the policy, not abandon it.

Addressing inequality in education

Sanders also warns that education choice creates a two-tiered system. This misses a basic reality. We already have a two-tiered education system, and we have had one for decades. Affluent families exercise choice every day through housing decisions, private tuition, and selective enrollment. The families trapped without meaningful alternatives are overwhelmingly working-class, disproportionately Black and Latino, and concentrated in the very communities Democrats claim to champion.

The federal scholarship tax credit does not create inequality. It addresses one of the most entrenched and least discussed drivers of inequality in American education: the massive gap in out-of-school enrichment spending. Wealthy families routinely spend thousands of dollars a year on tutoring, test prep, academic enrichment, summer programs, technology, and specialized services for their children. These investments compound over time, accelerating learning and widening achievement gaps. Working-class families understand this. They want to provide the same kinds of support for their kids. Most simply cannot afford to.

The federal scholarship tax credit is designed to narrow that gap. By allowing funds to be used for tutoring, supplemental instruction, special education services, and other learning support, including for students who remain in public schools, the program gives lower-income families access to the very tools affluent families already deploy as a matter of course. That is not privatization. It is equalization.

Twenty-seven states have already opted in. Working families in those states will soon have access to tutoring, special education services, and learning options that did not exist before. Families in states that refuse to participate will have none of that.

Once broadly trusted on education, Democrats have lost ground. Swing voters and communities of color are increasingly open to alternatives the party refuses to offer. Democratic governors face a defining question. Are we the party that puts families first, even when it challenges our preconceptions? Or are we the party that protects institutional orthodoxy, even when families pay the price?

Voters are watching. And as with Medicaid expansion, they will remember who opted in and helped them, and who did not.