DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis has broken ranks with every other Democratic governor in the country by formally opting Colorado into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, a permanent school choice program signed into law as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025.
Polis submitted the opt-in paperwork on January 29, 2026, at a gathering of private and religious school choice advocates, making Colorado the only state with a Democratic governor to formally enroll. Twenty-seven states have now opted in, and all the others are led by Republican governors, according to Ballotpedia’s state participation tracker.
“I would be crazy not to,” Polis told the Colorado Sun in a November interview when he first signaled his intent. He later described the program as “free money” requiring zero state resources, comparing it favorably to Medicaid expansion, which required state matching funds.
The decision has drawn opposition from 16 education and advocacy organizations, sharp criticism from the Colorado Education Association, and a public rebuke from the leading Democratic candidate to succeed Polis. It has also drawn praise from school choice advocates who see Polis as one of the few Democrats willing to prioritize families over party orthodoxy on education.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit offers a 100% nonrefundable federal tax credit for individual taxpayers who donate to Scholarship Granting Organizations, or SGOs. Donors can reduce their federal income tax liability dollar for dollar, up to $1,700 per taxpayer. The SGOs then distribute those funds as scholarships to eligible K-12 students.
The program has no aggregate cap on total annual credits and no sunset provision, making it a permanent feature of federal tax law. The Senate version removed the House’s proposed $5 billion annual limit, according to Education Week. Education Week estimated that if 5 million people donate $1,700 each, the program would channel more than $8 billion annually into education scholarships. If participation reaches 59 million taxpayers, the annual total could exceed $101 billion.
Eligible expenses follow Coverdell education savings account rules: tuition, tutoring, special needs services, educational technology, internet access, transportation, after-school programs, summer programs, and services for students with disabilities. Religious schools are expressly permitted. Student families must earn at or below 300% of area median income, which in practice means a family of four in Eagle County could earn up to $399,600 and still qualify, according to the Colorado Sun.
SGOs must be 501(c)(3) nonprofits but do not require state approval to participate. They need only comply with basic federal requirements and submit annual financial audits. Governors who opt in must submit lists of approved SGOs to the Treasury Department. The program is set to launch January 1, 2027.
Polis’s decision is consistent with an education reform record that distinguishes him from most Democratic governors. He co-founded the New America School in 2004, a public charter high school system serving recent immigrants across metro Denver. In Congress, he authored bipartisan legislation to expand high-performing charter schools and served as ranking member on the early childhood and K-12 subcommittee. As governor, he implemented free, universal full-day kindergarten and preschool, expanded dual-language immersion programs, and created vocational pathways including phlebotomy and EMT certification.
“Really, it’s only our own creativity that can hold us back. Anything we can envision, this is a very powerful funding mechanism,” Polis said at the January 29 event.
His press secretary said the governor submitted the form “to officially signal Colorado’s intent to participate in the tax credit in order to give Colorado taxpayers new opportunities to invest in Colorado students at all school types,” according to Colorado Newsline.
Polis has also framed the decision as a matter of practical competition with other states. Jorge Elorza, CEO of Democrats for Education Reform (an organization whose stated mission is “to make Democrats the party of education innovation and equity”), argued the point directly: “If a state does not opt in, then by default, the first $1,700 in every single federal taxpayer’s taxes is going to leave your state,” he told The 74.
Polling data cited by supporters suggests broad public backing. A September 2025 DFER poll found 64% of voters support governors opting in, including 61% of Democrats. An EdChoice/Morning Consult survey found 65% of adults and 75% of parents support tax-credit scholarships, according to The 74.
The backlash within Democratic circles has been substantial. More than 15 education advocacy organizations urged Polis not to opt in, and a coalition of 16 groups led by Great Education Colorado (an organization whose stated mission is to “guarantee that public schools in every Colorado community are welcoming and adequately, equitably, and sustainably funded”) published an open letter calling on the governor to reject “Trump’s Federal Voucher Plan That Drains Public School Funding.”
Signatories included the Colorado Education Association, the Colorado Fiscal Institute, the Colorado PTA, the Bell Policy Center, Movimiento Poder, the Black Parent Network, and ten other organizations. “We cannot stand by while policies weaken our public schools. We have a moral responsibility…” the letter stated.
Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association (the state’s largest teachers’ union), has called school choice proposals “a Trojan Horse.” During the 2024 Amendment 80 campaign, Vick said proponents were “using the innocuous word of ‘choice’ as a vehicle for what opens the door clearly for a voucher scheme,” according to Colorado Pols. The CEA signed the coalition letter opposing the tax credit.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) captured the national progressive critique during congressional debate: “We should not be creating a two-tier education system in America, private schools for the wealthy, and well-connected, and severely underfunded and under-resourced public schools for low-income, disabled and working class kids,” according to Chalkbeat.
Phil Weiser, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and current Colorado attorney general, has publicly stated he would not support participation. “I will oppose any efforts to privatize our system of public education, such as introducing voucher programs,” Weiser said, as reported by Colorado Newsline. Because Polis’s term ends in January 2027, the same month the program launches, a new governor could reverse Colorado’s participation before a single scholarship is distributed.
Notably, Polis himself has acknowledged the program’s oversight vulnerabilities. In a letter to the federal government, he wrote: “Without careful consideration of how states select and monitor their eligible SGOs, this credit also has the potential to lead to fraud, waste, and abuse,” according to CPR News.
The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to “conducting in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance,” published a detailed analysis identifying multiple fraud vectors. Wealthy donors could contribute appreciated securities to avoid capital gains taxes while receiving the full dollar-for-dollar credit. Brookings illustrated how a billionaire donating $2 million in stock originally purchased for $1 million could avoid approximately $285,000 in combined federal and state taxes while receiving the full $2 million credit. The analysis also flagged the potential for kickback schemes between SGO operators and service providers, given the absence of restrictions on amounts per recipient. Brookings characterized the program as opening “the door to waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Florida’s existing state-level scholarship program offers a cautionary example: an auditor’s report found the program paid for 30,000 students that the state cannot accurately track, according to CPR.
Kevin Welner of the National Education Policy Center cited research showing that Louisiana’s voucher program produced 0.4 standard deviation drops in math scores among participating students. He described the harms as “on par with COVID-19 and Hurricane Katrina,” according to the Colorado Sun.
Polis’s decision arrives against a backdrop of repeated voter rejection of school choice and voucher measures in Colorado. Voters defeated Amendment 7, a voucher initiative, in 1992 by a margin of 66.8% to 33.2%. They rejected Amendment 17, an education tax credit proposal, in 1998 by 60.3% to 39.7%. Most recently, voters narrowly defeated Amendment 80 in November 2024, which would have established a constitutional right to school choice; the measure received 49.3% support but required 55% to pass, according to Ballotpedia.
The Colorado Supreme Court has also struck down legislatively enacted voucher programs twice. In 2004, the court invalidated the Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program in a 4-3 decision, ruling it violated the state constitution’s local control provisions. In 2015, the court struck down the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Pilot Program for violating a state constitutional provision prohibiting state aid to religious institutions.
Critics argue that the federal tax credit effectively circumvents this pattern by routing funding through federal tax policy rather than state appropriations, placing it beyond the reach of the state constitution and ballot measures. Supporters counter that a federal tax credit is structurally distinct from a state-funded voucher, because the money flows from private donors, not government coffers.
The partisan divide among governors is stark. Of the 27 states that have opted in, Colorado is the only one led by a Democratic governor. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) vetoed a legislative opt-in bill on August 6, 2025, but said he intended to opt the state in once the U.S. Department of the Treasury issues formal guidance, according to Ballotpedia. Democratic governors in New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin have officially declined. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed opt-in legislation on January 16, 2026, according to Ballotpedia.
Several large states remain undecided. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the governors of Michigan and California have made no formal announcements, according to The 74. Virginia presents a unique case: former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) opted the state in, and his successor, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), has not confirmed whether Virginia will remain enrolled, according to Ballotpedia.
The American Federation for Children, an organization that describes itself as seeking “to empower families, especially lower-income families, with the freedom to choose the best K-12 education for their children,” has been among the most vocal supporters. Its CEO, Tommy Schultz, said the legislation would give “the President an opportunity to fulfill his school choice campaign promise and send K-12 education back to the states,” according to AFC.
The Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that describes itself as advancing “a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles,” offered qualified support. Its analysis praised the program for going “to impressive lengths to protect families and SGOs against burdensome regulations,” but cautioned that “there’s virtually no chance it will stay that way for long,” according to Reason.
The deadline for governors to notify the federal government is December 2026. With 36 gubernatorial elections scheduled for November of that year, the program’s reach could shift significantly depending on the outcomes.
DENVER — The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration over the past year have pushed the weighted average U.S. tariff rate to 13.5%, up...
DENVER — Colorado taxpayers who grew accustomed to receiving $750 or $800 TABOR refund checks will see those payments collapse to as little as...
The global picture At least 176 nations and jurisdictions worldwide require some form of identification to vote, according to a dataset compiled by researchers...