Starting Jan. 1, a new federal scholarship tax credit will help families pay for tutoring, school supplies, specialized services and other educational expenses. But Maryland’s participation requires Gov. Wes Moore’s approval. He should make that decision now: Opt in, expand educational opportunities for Maryland children and keep hundreds of millions of potential scholarship dollars from flowing elsewhere.
Instead, Maryland remains absent from the IRS participation list, though 31 peer states have opted in. Meanwhile, Moore has publicly dismissed the program as a “tax scheme.” Speaking before the American Federation of Teachers in July, Moore portrayed the program as taking public funding and steering it toward private schools. But that framing leaves out an essential fact: The scholarships can also benefit children attending public schools.
The governor does not have to endorse President Donald Trump, embrace every provision of his legislation or abandon Maryland’s public schools. He simply has to recognize that a useful opportunity does not become useless because the wrong political party created it. A Maryland parent should not have fewer opportunities to help a struggling child simply because the governor objects to the president who signed the program into law.
The program gives taxpayers a federal tax credit for qualifying donations to approved scholarship-granting organizations. Those organizations can fund eligible educational expenses including tutoring, books, supplies, computers, special-needs services and private-school tuition. The benefit is far broader than the governor’s description suggests.
For a child struggling to read, that could mean additional instruction. For a parent trying to meet a child’s specialized learning needs, it could mean another source of support. For a family whose current school is not working, it could help make another educational setting attainable.
The newly released regulations reinforce that flexibility. Scholarship organizations may focus their assistance on particular subjects, such as science or foreign languages, or adopt narrower income standards to concentrate their resources on families with greater financial need. That creates room for targeted help rather than another one-size-fits-all approach, including programs designed to serve students in particular communities.
The scholarship program offers another way to connect resources with individual needs. It does not require families to withdraw their children from public schools, and eligible expenses can include services connected with public-school attendance. Nor does opting in itself require Maryland to cut its public-school appropriations. That is why portraying the program as taking money away from public education is so misleading: Participation creates another source of educational support without requiring Maryland to reduce public-school funding.
Participation does not mean abandoning accountability. The federal rules require states to certify participating scholarship organizations, review required financial and programmatic audits and ensure compliance with applicable requirements. Organizations that fail to comply can be removed from the program.
The most troubling consequence of refusing to participate is also the simplest.
Maryland taxpayers can still make qualifying donations to scholarship organizations in participating states and claim the federal credit. If Maryland declines to participate, those donations can support opportunities elsewhere while Maryland organizations remain outside the program. By one conservative estimate, the program could direct as much as $550 million in new scholarship funding to Maryland education, even before accounting for the newly clarified $3,400 credit available to married couples filing jointly.
That is not protecting Maryland’s children. It is accepting a system in which Maryland residents can help finance educational opportunities that their own state refuses to make available locally.
Maryland would not necessarily have to build a new scholarship network from scratch. Federal rules allow multistate scholarship organizations authorized to operate in Maryland to participate while requiring separate scholarship accounts for each participating state.
Virginia, West Virginia and Colorado are among 31 states already listed as participating. Maryland would hardly be taking an unprecedented leap. Moore should explain why Maryland’s families deserve fewer options than their southern and western neighbors.
Nor is participation an indefinite commitment. States elect to participate annually, giving Maryland the opportunity to evaluate the program before deciding whether to participate again.
For 2027, the temporary regulations set a concrete timetable: an advance election by Jan. 1, followed by submission of the state’s scholarship-organization list by Feb. 15. The opportunity is real, and so are the deadlines.
We cannot know his private political calculations. But his public dismissal and continued failure to opt in invite a fair question: Is opposition to a Trump-backed policy becoming more important than evaluating what that policy could do for children? If his opposition is tied to union support, does the Maryland State Education Association really know what’s right for every Maryland family?
The deeper mistake is treating institutional loyalty as more important than individual opportunity. Helping a child through another educational channel is not an attack on public education.
Public schools play an important role in Maryland education. But children are not instruments for defending a funding model, and families should not have to wait for comprehensive reform before receiving help available through another route.
Moore can support public schools and expand families’ options simultaneously. He should stop standing between Maryland children and another source of educational support. Opt Maryland in before Jan. 1, establish responsible oversight and let Maryland families decide how these resources can best help their children.
Mark Zockoll is the executive director of the Maryland Christian Education Association. He is a long-time resident of Salisbury.