Virginia Democrat Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger will face a major challenge to her carefully curated “moderate” charade immediately after taking office in the form of a Trump administration scholarship program that expands school choice for participating states. Early indicators suggest Spanberger is likely to withdraw Virginia from the initiative to appease Democrat allies and teachers’ union bosses – a move that could seriously undermine her credibility with parents.
As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) which President Donald Trump signed into law last July, the federal government is establishing a Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program, also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit, to empower more families to access education options that work best for them.
FSTC allows individual taxpayers to claim a nonrefundable, dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit for donations to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). The SGOs then distribute that money to students, who can use it for tuition, tutoring, educational therapies for students with disabilities, and other education-related services.
While FSTC is available nationwide, states must opt-in to the program and recognize qualified SGOs. On January 1, outgoing Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin made Virginia the first state to opt in to the program.
“Virginia is proud to lead the nation once again as the first state to opt in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit,” Youngkin said in a statement. “This decision expands school choice for families across the Commonwealth by opening access to federally tax credit-funded scholarships, empowering parents and helping ensure students, especially those with the greatest needs, can choose the learning environment that is right for them.”
Nearly half of states have similar programs in place, including Virginia, although their reach is limited in some cases, according to Ed Choice. FSTC would greatly expand school choice and educational opportunities for millions of students. At least six other states have already followed Virginia’s lead in opting in to the program, while three states, Wisconsin, Oregon, and New Mexico, have opted out.
However, the Treasury Department is still finalizing regulations surrounding the new program, which means that Youngkin’s announcement is not binding. It will be up to Spanberger to follow through on enrolling Virginia in FSTC.
Keeping Youngkin’s decision in place would seemingly be an easy victory for Spanberger, as the new school choice policy would not cost the state a dime. It would also provide extra help to Virginia students in need of tutoring or specialized education – something Spanberger emphasized during her campaign last year.
Moreover, from a political perspective, remaining in a Trump program that objectively helps students would be an easy way for Spanberger to bolster her reputation – whether earned or not – as a “moderate” Democrat. Another Democrat Governor, Jared Polis of Colorado, has already opted in, giving Spanberger the talking point that the program is bipartisan.
However, Spanberger is already facing pressure to withdraw Virginia from FSTC, and it appears as if she isn’t going to put up much of a fight. Democrat state senator Schuyler VanValkenburg accused Youngkin of being “incredibly irresponsible,” in opting in. “He doesn’t even know what he’s signing us into,” VanValkenburg complained.
The Virginia Education Association (VEA), which endorsed Spanberger and has been critical of Youngkin, also came out against the school choice policy. The VEA represents public school teachers and opposes programs that would help students access high-quality private schools. “This is an outrageous, last-minute political stunt by an outgoing governor,” union president Carol Bauer told the media.
The teachers’ union opposed the policy from its inception, admitting that more students would leave public schools if they had the option to do so. VEA reportedly expects 50,000 more students would leave their public school or never enroll in the first place if given the opportunity.
This would be a roughly 50 percent increase in private school enrollment, as around 112,000 Virginians are currently in private schools – about nine percent of all students. “In Virginia, like most states, education funding is tied to enrollment – when enrollment drops, state, local, and federal aid and other support can drop,” the union lamented in July, soon after the OBBB passed.
These figures only further illustrate the need for greater school choice in the first place. Opponents of the FSTC program are implicitly admitting that government policy is the only thing keeping many kids in public schools that have seen plummeting test scores and worse educational outcomes for years.
Democrat leaders in the state also previously opposed a similar plan by Governor Youngkin to create a $50 million school choice program. “We will never agree to take money from public schools to provide vouchers for private schools,” Democrat state senator Louise Lucas, a prominent Youngkin critic, said last year. “We know what it is, no matter what name is used to market it.”
Spanberger, who will take the oath of office on January 17, is in a bind. On the one hand, she could help tens of thousands of Virginia students access high-quality education that gives them a better chance to succeed – thus delivering for parents and the people who voted her into office. But in doing so, she would invite the ire of her compatriots in her party and in the teachers’ union, two key allies for passing her own agenda.
All signs suggest that Spanberger will opt out of the school choice program, which could create an opportunity for Republicans in the next elections in Virginia in 2027.
Spanberger’s dilemma is one facing Democrats nationwide. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have advanced some programs and policies that are broadly popular with the public, but which progressive partisans and liberal special interests reflexively oppose. Democrats need the support of both groups to win and maintain power. Keeping them both happy, however, has become an increasingly perilous tightrope act.
AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
It never ceases to amaze me that democrat politicians never choose to do the right thing, rather they choose what is to their own personal gain. Such flawed characters.
Like NY and CA, Virginia will see an exodus of people who will move to conservative states, all because lunatic liberals are turning the state into a s**tshow.
Virginia voters are as foolish and stupid as California voters. They will suffer as a result.
What is the point in having federal policy is each state can always “Opt out?” Public schools are failing. Taxpayers of all ages should be absolutely up in arms over this waste. I guess having AI take over a lot of jobs will save society form admitting that a significant number of students over past decades cannot read, write or do math. They can’t sign even their name, but I guess invalidating a lot of those ballots is okay with me.
The Arizona school choice program is hanging on by a thread as Governor Hobbs is trying her best to curtail or end it. Of course, the radical liberals do not want school choice, they want all of our kids in government public schools so they can continue to brainwash them daily! It is disgusting and we are now reaping all of those brainwashing tactics with adults who hate the U.S. and its citizens. They are traitors to our Constitution.
What more must leftists do to convince people they are only interested in one thing, no matter the cost, their own positions and access to public money, all else is secondary or not worth mentioning.
Spermburger is going to cause another UNNECESSARY, PREVENTABLE Lowdown County School transgender rape crime. How will school officials hide the crime this time?
No shocker there! Just wait and see what else she has planned….her AND Mamdani and whomever else they select from the endless list of Dumba$$ocrat$…..(smh)
Well, if they lose public education students to alternative schools, they will have fewer students to indoctrinate. This terrifies them.
Amazing that the MSM said nothing when the useful idiots in Virginia chose not to elect a black woman as governor. Had the parties been reversed we would still be hearing about how the racisists refused to elect a black woman. I suppose that having a domestic terrorist as attorney general checks off the correct boxes. Threatening to kill the children of someone you disagree with is an act of domestic terrorism — why no consequences?
She’s a Democrat, how that did not undermine her credibility with parents in Virginia of all places is a mystery to me!
Competition via school choice is the only way to increase the education standards of the public schools which, heretofore have taken the easy way out as the only game in town. Charter schools and private schools are so far ahead with the quality of the education they provide the kids: the lack of experimentation with curricula and influence of social programs, the quality of teaching staff and classically driven educational goals, it is driving the teachers’ unions daffy. They, of course, insist on the status quo so they can retain their power (and the $ they get from that, of course, but the objective is to take their power away and allow an informed marketplace to flourish.
After teaching high school for 25 years I quickly learned that the NEA and State and local Teacher Unions in ALL blue States are only interested in protecting unqualified, bad, and child molesting teachers, using billions of dollars of union dues to support and help elect radical left-wing politicians and ideologies, fleecing more pay for themselves, enjoying Martini lunches (calling them productive meetings, ALL paid of course, with union dues dollars), and where the actual students, classrooms and all supporting resources SELDOM, IF EVER make it into the classrooms or benefit instruction.
But whenever quality education opportunities raise their ‘evil’ heads, radical left-wing liberal politicians (elected by ignorantly arrogant TDS-suffering STUPID VOTERS) try their damndest to block all of them.
ANY WONDER WHY AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAILING ACROSS THE COUNTRY, ESPECIALLY IN BLUE STATES AND CITIES?
NO MYSTERY AT ALL. (STILL WONDERING, RE-READ THE ABOVE, SLOWLY).