Hochul’s Tax Credit and the Fight for Catholic School Choice

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. The New York State Catholic Conference, the bishops’ lobbying arm in Albany, praised the governor’s decision and cited the program’s benefits in making religious-based schools more affordable and in promoting school choice for the state’s parents. Although this program is not the direct voucher system that New York Catholic schools have long sought, it offers some relief to parents struggling to pay for religious-based schooling. 

That relief is timely, as well. In 2001, the New York Archdiocese had 80,000 children enrolled in 274 parochial schools. A quarter-century later, that number has fallen to just under 50,000 children in 153 schools. Nonetheless, those schools produce disproportionate results. Students in archdiocesan schools consistently outperform their public-school peers in both math and reading scores. Graduation rates also differ markedly. To compare the numbers in the Archdiocese of New York with New York City public schools can be misleading, as the archdiocese comprises three of the city’s five boroughs (Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island) but also includes seven upstate counties. A more accurate comparison would be the Diocese of Brooklyn, which falls entirely within New York City (the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens). There, the high school graduation rate stands at 99 percent, compared to 81 percent for New York City public high schools. Nearly all Catholic high school graduates in New York City go on to higher education, and often these students are the first in their family to do so. These schools thus provide a means of upward mobility that should be celebrated and fostered. Catholic school enrollment, even in its decline, continues to affect taxpayers at large by offsetting the tax burden: Were every child currently enrolled in a Catholic school in New York City to transfer to a public school, it would require an additional $2.5 billion in tax revenue. 

The $1,700 credit will offer needed help to many families, but it’s far from sufficient. Tuition for New York Catholic elementary schools averages around $7,000 per student. By way of comparison, New York City public schools spend a record $44,000 per student, nearly double the national average. Public school teachers earn, on average, twice as much as their parochial counterparts. Given that staggering differential, even this credit program represents mere scraps from the government’s table. And yet the public school teachers’ union would deprive needy families even of that. 

New York State United Teachers has criticized the governor’s decision to allow this indirect voucher for “private institutions that don’t answer to the public.” The statement reeks of irony: Polls have shown that a majority of New York State parents, including Democrats, favor allowing vouchers for private schools, whether secular or religious. The union’s sentiment hearkens back to former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe’s gaffe in 2021, when he stated during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” The comment got so much attention because it reinforced the perception that progressive lawmakers and bureaucrats believe they know better than parents what’s best for children. For a party that has made “choice” a quasi-religious shibboleth, Democrats remain highly allergic to a robust religious presence in the public square. If Gov. Hochul is serious about school choice and affordability, she can and must do more to assist parents who desire the option of a viable, religious-based education for their child. 

Should the governor follow through on her intention, New York would join thirty other states and the District of Columbia in having at least one private school choice program, whether in the form of tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, or direct tax credits. Mainstreaming such programs, and recognizing religious schools as an acceptable and even desirable alternative to government schools, offers a needed reminder that the Constitution protects freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. 

Although the governor’s poll numbers on favorability and job performance remain under water, she will almost certainly coast to reelection this fall in a heavily Democratic state. She currently leads her Republican challenger by a margin that exceeds the presidential vote two years ago. In her first full term, she has amassed an atrocious record on fundamental issues including abortion, euthanasia, and religious liberty, and while her decision to participate in this tax credit program is welcome, there remain plenty of reasons to be skeptical that it signals any broader shift in the right direction. But, as students in Catholic school learn, one of the theological virtues is hope.