High-dose tutoring in Massachusetts is among the programs the new federal tax credit could help fund. (Photo by Michael Jonas)

MASSACHUSETTS HAS LONG prided itself on leading the nation in education. But even in the country’s highest-performing state, serious challenges remain. Too many students are still struggling academically in the aftermath of the pandemic. Achievement gaps remain stubbornly wide. Wealthy families continue to spend vastly more on tutoring, summer programs, enrichment activities, and academic supports than lower-income families can afford. 

Gov. Maura Healey has rightly made intensive one-on-one tutoring for struggling students a priority. The question is how to scale it. A new federal scholarship tax credit program offers Massachusetts an opportunity to do exactly that. 

The mechanics of the program are straightforward. Individual taxpayers receive a 100 percent federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributing to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations, or SGOs, which then provide funding for a range of approved educational supports. Under the recently passed federal law, however, each state’s governor must proactively choose whether to opt in.

Since one of the program’s eligible uses is private school tuition, critics have urged Democratic governors to opt out, labeling the program a “voucher” initiative. That description mischaracterizes what the program actually does. In reality, it creates a new funding stream from private donations that will support a wide range of K-12 services, including tutoring, after-school programs, special education services, career training, and other student supports. Public school students are not only eligible to benefit, they stand to be the biggest beneficiaries.

Massachusetts Democrats do not need to embrace Donald Trump’s education vision to recognize an opportunity when they see one. The federal scholarship tax credit program would provide the Commonwealth with more money to advance its K-12 priorities and support its public school students. 

Seizing that opportunity, though, requires that Gov. Healey choose to opt in. And here, we have a ready frame of reference.

For years, Democrats criticized Republican governors who refused federal Medicaid expansion dollars under the Affordable Care Act. The logic was clear: refusing to participate would not stop the program from existing. It would simply mean residents of those states paid federal taxes while receiving fewer benefits in return.

The same logic applies here. Refusing to opt into the tax credit program will not stop it from moving forward nationally. It will simply mean Massachusetts taxpayers subsidize educational supports in other states, while fewer resources flow to students and youth-serving organizations here at home.

Massachusetts can opt in and help shape how these dollars are used, or stand aside while billions of tax dollars leave the state.

That would be a costly mistake.

If Massachusetts does not opt in, then by default, more than $2.2 billion will leave the state each year and go either to the US Treasury or to students in other states. Other states will build the nonprofit infrastructure, attract the contributions, and put the money to work supporting their students.

If Massachusetts opts in and actively encourages participation, however, the state could recapture those dollars and redirect them toward organizations serving Massachusetts children. 

Recent survey data suggests the potential is enormous: 57 percent of Massachusetts respondents said they would be interested in redirecting their $1,700 contribution away from the US Treasury and toward a local scholarship granting organization. If participation reached those levels, the state would channel more than $1.25 billion a year toward in-state, youth-serving organizations.

Importantly, the same survey found that Massachusetts respondents preferred, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, supporting scholarship granting organizations that serve only public school students over SGOs serving only private school students. Forty-two percent preferred public-school-focused SGOs, compared with just 15 percent for private-school-only organizations.

Those finding matter. The public debate surrounding this program has often assumed the dollars would primarily support private education. But Massachusetts residents themselves appear far more interested in directing resources toward programs that help students in public schools.

That creates a significant opportunity for Massachusetts leaders to help catalyze a new ecosystem of nonprofit organizations focused on high-impact tutoring, enrichment, and other supports for public school students. Organizations already doing this work could scale dramatically. New organizations could emerge to meet unmet needs.

The enrichment gap alone should command policymakers’ attention. Research consistently shows that affluent families spend roughly nine times more on out-of-school educational opportunities than low-income families. In practice, this means access to tutoring, music lessons, summer camps, robotics programs, test preparation, and enrichment increasingly depends on family income.

The result is a system where opportunity gaps continue widening outside the classroom walls.

Gov. Healey has emphasized the importance of accelerating learning recovery through evidence-based interventions like high-dosage tutoring. The federal scholarship tax credit program could become a major financing mechanism to help achieve that goal without impacting Massachusetts’s education budget by a single cent.

At a time when state budgets are tightening and federal education dollars from the pandemic era are expiring, it makes little sense to reject a new stream of education funding that Massachusetts residents are already helping finance through their federal taxes.

The better approach is to shape the program, guide it, and ensure it reflects Massachusetts values and priorities. If Gov. Healey raises broad public awareness, makes participation easy, and helps build public-school-focused SGOs with strong guardrails, the Commonwealth can channel substantial new resources toward evidence-backed interventions that will help the neediest students.

The money is going somewhere. Massachusetts can either use this new funding stream or sit on the sidelines and watch other states seize the opportunity. Democratic governors Jared Polis of Colorado and Kathy Hochul of New York have already opted in, and prominent Democratic voices, like former secretary of education Arne Duncan, have called opting in a “no brainer.”

For a state that prides itself on educational leadership, the choice should be obvious.

Jorge Elorza is CEO of Democrats for Education Reform. He served as mayor of Providence from 2015 to 2023. Timothy Murray is president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. He served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2013.