The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) for donations to scholarship granting organizations is simple and readily understandable. According to the IRS, “Beginning January 1, 2027, individual taxpayers may be able to claim a Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) for certain cash contributions up to $1700 to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). A state or the District of Columbia (state) must choose to participate in the FSTC and provide a list of SGOs in that state to the IRS before an individual taxpayer can donate to an SGO within that state and claim the FSTC.”
As of April 26, 2026, the following states have signed onto
the program: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho,
Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Connecticut, not
known in the past for allowing federal dollars to slip through its clutches, is
not at the moment a participating state.
The Republican Nominating Convention’s choice for governor,
Ryan Fazio, finds the opposition to the FSTC program somewhat odd. Why would
the governing power in Connecticut – Governor Ned Lamont and the state’s left
leaning General Assembly turn up its nose at what he has called, somewhat
sardonically, “Literally free money?” Fazio, a Republican whose conservative bona fides few question, fully understands
“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” Milton Friedman’s memorable locution.
Governor Lamont at first embraced the idea, but later had
second thoughts. Political commentators afflicted by gnawing curiosity are now
wondering what or who changed Lamont’s mind. During election periods, we all
know, even the soundest of economic principles embraced by presumptive moderates
tend to realign with the preferences of powerful political interests.
“States still have to opt in [to the program], CTMirror tells us, “… and those
that have are mostly Republican-led. Colorado was an early exception, and New
York signaled in early May that it also plans to join. Connecticut has not, and
Gov. Ned Lamont has indicated he’d rather wait for the federal government to
release more guidance on how the program works. He expects that to be available
by January.”
And by January 2027, the off-year presidential elections in
Connecticut will have concluded. Democrat opponents of FSTC by that time will
have ushered into office both Lamont and a left-leaning Democrat Party
dominated General Assembly.
“The program,” we are told by CTMirror, “has received
support from advocates for private school choice and religious education, as it
eases the cost of tuition.” As suggested by the number of states that have
pledged to adopt the program, there is abroad in the United States a vast
number of parents who are unhappy with the quality of education their children,
rich and poor alike, are receiving. They view the FSTC program as a small
window carved into a pedagogical holding cell they hope to escape. Private and
religious schools are relatively few in number. It would be absurd to suppose
they alone
are responsible for the positive reception to the FSTC program in 27 states.
Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias gave
the game away when she said tax credits and state voucher systems were part of
the same effort. CTMirror pointed out to Dias that Connecticut “does not have a
voucher system, nor have legislators from either party articulated much
interest in creating one. And vouchers don’t have a direct bearing on the
federal scholarship tax credit, which comes out of the federal budget, not any
state’s.”
Sure, sure, Dias responded, but they are alike in the most
important respect: “The intention and the motivation of the federal government are
to set up a nationwide infrastructure for school vouchers. That, Dias said,
forces public schools to compete for attendance — and by extension, funding.
States typically base public school funding around enrollment.”
Dias is saddened by the very concept of the proposed federal
scholarship tax credit. “It makes me sad,” she confessed, “that we’ve created a
competitive
environment [emphasis mine] as opposed to one where we are able to
equitably look and say, ‘OK, this is where the opportunities are.’”
Behind Dias’ fear of competition lie several supportive
battalions, all politically armed to the teeth and determined to eradicate
competitive pedagogical disturbances such as Catholic schools, private schools,
and charter schools.
As a portent of things to come, public hearings in which
parents – the first line of defense against inadequate education – are
permitted to protest publically against attempts to politicize homeschooling must
at all costs be frustrated by Democrat politicians in hock to powerful state
education union heads that support state rather than municipal control of
education programs.
Historically, Connecticut’s municipalities determined for
decades both the nature of curricula throughout the state and the financing of
local education. And need it be pointed out that Abraham Lincoln, among other
notable political leaders in the U.S. and Europe, was home schooled. The highly
poetic Gettysburg Address that used to be recited every Memorial Day in most
major cemeteries in Connecticut is a testament to Lincoln’s poetic prowess.
Most postmodern politicians could not hold a candle to Lincoln, whose Second
Inaugural Address still rates among the most powerful political utterances of
the last two centuries.
Lincoln’s memorable words, inscribed by a woman sculptress
on the North interior wall of the Lincoln Memorial, still smolder in the hearts
of free men and women everywhere:
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of
offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom
the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of
those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which,
having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that
he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by
whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do
we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the
bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said,
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
What Connecticut politician aflame with the latest indignity
can soar to such rhetorical heights? Who among us remembers the last utterance
of any Connecticut politician blessed with an Ivy League education?
Lincoln was forever competing against his last best effort
at a time when it was thought that competition raised up men and women, but
that time perhaps has passed.
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