{"id":15074,"date":"2026-08-15T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=15074"},"modified":"2026-08-15T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:07:00","slug":"glenn-youngkin-dem-governors-fail-by-blocking-school-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/glenn-youngkin-dem-governors-fail-by-blocking-school-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Youngkin: Dem Governors Fail by Blocking School Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrat governors across the United States are standing in the way of educational opportunity for more than 20 million students by refusing to opt into a federal scholarship programme that would cost their states nothing, according to Glenn Youngkin writing in New York Post<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former Virginia Governor singles out Katie Hobbs<\/strong> of Arizona, Gavin Newsom<\/strong> of California, JB Pritzker<\/strong> of Illinois, Wes Moore<\/strong> of Maryland, and Josh Shapiro<\/strong> of Pennsylvania as leading the charge against parental choice in education.<\/p>\n

The Education Freedom Tax Credit allows parents to donate up to 1,700 dollars to scholarship-granting organisations and receive a matching federal tax credit. The donated funds are then converted into real scholarships covering tutoring, online classes, educational services for students with disabilities, transportation, or private school tuition. Students enrolled in public schools also qualify for these scholarships.<\/p>\n

Youngkin<\/strong>, who served as Virginia’s 74th governor, made his state the first in the nation to opt into the programme. To date, 30 states have officially joined, unlocking opportunities for nearly 31 million children. However, 20 governors representing over 20 million students have either refused or actively blocked access.<\/p>\n

No Cost to Public Schools<\/h2>\n

The programme pulls not a single dollar from public school funding and imposes no new taxes. States that fail to opt in by 1 January 2027 will see their taxpayer contributions redirected to participating states, meaning their own families miss out entirely.<\/p>\n

In Arizona, Hobbs has vetoed legislation to join the programme three times, blocking access for 1.1 million students. She also proposed dismantling Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account programme, a school choice tool already benefiting families. Hobbs herself attended private school.<\/p>\n

Shapiro in Pennsylvania presents a similar contradiction. Having benefited from a private education himself, he has blocked 1.8 million Pennsylvania children from accessing the same opportunities.<\/p>\n

Popular Across Party Lines<\/h2>\n

Despite resistance from Democrat governors and teachers’ unions, the policy enjoys broad support. Democrats for Education Reform found that 61 per cent of Democrats back these scholarships, including 63 per cent of black voters and 68 per cent of Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n

New York Governor Kathy Hochul<\/strong> has indicated she will opt in but has yet to take binding action, leaving 2.7 million students in limbo.<\/p>\n

Political Elites Denying What They Enjoyed<\/h2>\n

Youngkin highlights an uncomfortable pattern: many Democrat governors who personally benefited from educational choice are now the most determined to deny it to others. He questions why any leader would turn down scholarships covering tutoring, tuition, transportation, and disability services when the programme costs state taxpayers nothing and takes nothing from public schools.<\/p>\n

To counter this obstruction, Youngkin launched Empowering America’s Parents, an initiative aimed at getting every governor to opt in and compelling gubernatorial candidates to commit to remaining in the programme. The organisation’s website allows parents to check where their state stands and apply pressure on their elected officials.<\/p>\n

The stakes are clear: governors are making these choices quietly, often with a veto pen, determining the educational futures of millions of children whose parents simply want better options.<\/p>\n

With information from New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin criticizes Democratic governors for blocking a federal scholarship program that would provide educational funding at no cost to their states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":15073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[10436,10434,768,11647,11768,11767,209],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-15074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-democratic-governors","tag-education-freedom-tax-credit","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-glenn-youngkin","tag-katie-hobbs","tag-school-choice","tag-united-states","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15076,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074\/revisions\/15076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15074"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=15074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}