Give credit where it’s due. That’s the message New York governor Kathy Hochul seems to have embraced by opting in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit. The initiative, part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, allows individual taxpayers to redirect up to $1,700 of their federal taxes to scholarship-granting organizations that offset the costs of private school tuition and related expenses.
May 19, 2026
Hochul’s Tax Credit and the Fight for Catholic School Choice
First Things • Brian A. Graebe
A new tax credit in New York has reopened an old and urgent question: should families of modest means have real access to schools that share their deepest convictions? For Catholic schools serving children with strong results and limited resources, the measure is only a partial answer—but it signals a wider fight over parental choice, religious education, and the future of schooling.
First Things
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