RALEIGH — A new federal tax credit can pay for tutors, summer school, and special-needs help for public school students, not only private tuition. Donations start Jan. 1, 2027. In other states, district foundations are already building the machinery to catch that money. In North Carolina, almost no one has said they will.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit lets a donor take a dollar-for-dollar federal tax break, up to $1,700, for a gift to a scholarship group that serves low- and middle-income families. About 93% of North Carolina students fall inside the income rules, Carolina Journal reported.
The political fight has treated the credit as a private-school voucher. The statute is wider than that. Scholarship groups can also pay for tutoring, summer programs, and services for students with disabilities who stay in public school. That is the slice district leaders in other states are trying to grab.
In Denver, the public school system’s foundation is getting ready. “My dream is I can give every second grader a tutor and we get everyone to grade-level reading and math,” foundation president Sara Hazel told The Hechinger Report.
In Las Vegas, the Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth largest, is building a scholarship program through a partner foundation. “There’s zero reason that school districts should shy away from taking advantage of what could be a substantial revenue opportunity for kids and families,” chief financial officer Justin Dayhoff told The Nevada Independent.
Colorado, run by Democrats, is in the same conversation. Gov. Jared Polis has engaged the program, and Democratic lawmakers have spent months arguing over state guardrails.
North Carolina is opted in, and late. The General Assembly passed House Bill 87 in July 2025. Gov. Josh Stein vetoed it days later. Lawmakers overrode the veto in June, putting the state with more than 30 others that have joined.
Stein has said the money should reach public school students. “I see opportunities for the federal scholarship donation tax credit program to benefit North Carolina’s public school kids,” he said at the veto. “Once the federal government issues sound guidance, I intend to opt North Carolina in so we can invest in the public school students most in need of after school programs, tutoring, and other resources.” That guidance is now expected from the Treasury by the end of September. His office did not answer Carolina Journal on whether he wants districts to participate.
So far, no North Carolina district or education nonprofit has announced that it will. WakeEd Partnership, which has backed Wake County schools for four decades, is the one group that has said it is looking.
“For us, our test is pretty simple: can it help Wake County public school students?” president Keith Poston told Carolina Journal. “If there is an opportunity for Wake County public school students to use these credits for tutoring, summer learning, other educational supports, I feel like we have an obligation, based on our mission, to at least explore it and see if it can make sense.”
WakeEd already runs tutoring for struggling students and career-focused STEM programs. Poston said he sent the federal rules to the group’s lawyer and finance officer to see whether WakeEd can qualify as a scholarship-granting organization.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s foundation sees a harder door. Federal law requires a scholarship-granting organization to spend at least 90% of its income on scholarships. “The 90% requirement means completely restructuring our organization to make scholarships the primary focus,” executive director Sonja Gantt wrote to Carolina Journal. She said that is her reading of what has been released so far, and that Treasury’s September guidance should settle whether Denver and Las Vegas plan to rebuild around scholarships or simply stretch tutoring and summer programs they already run.
Gantt also pointed to a statewide shortcut: one organization handling scholarships for many districts. “I am very interested in what NC Education Corps is considering,” she said. She called that “one way for multiple districts to benefit with one organization focused on this effort.”
Critics have not dropped the voucher argument. Democrats have broadly opposed the credit as private-school aid under another name. The NC Budget & Tax Center asked federal regulators in a December comment to tighten the program, warning it would “divert public funds to private educational uses” without “meaningful quality or accountability standards nor anti-discrimination requirements.” Executive director Alexandra Forter Sirota cited a North Carolina figure: just 8.4% of the state’s 2024-25 voucher recipients had previously attended public school.
Poston set the politics aside. “We have absolutely no qualms about who created it or why, or the politics around it,” he said. “If it’ll help students and bring additional resources to Wake County public school students, then we’re all for it.”
The calendar is short even if a Catawba district wanted in. Under House Bill 87, the State Education Assistance Authority has to approve and publish the list of scholarship groups. Its own rules deadline does not start until 120 days after the federal regulations come out. If those rules land in September, the state framework is late December at the earliest. Donations begin days later.
An EdChoice survey this spring found just 17% of the public had heard much about the credit. Once it was explained, most parents and a majority of the public supported it.
Catawba County’s three school systems have not announced a plan. The same week the state posted stronger school grades, the board in Raleigh was already talking about a new way to measure those schools. Extra tutors and summer help are the kind of gap those grades still show. The federal credit is one pile of money written for that work. It will not arrive on its own.
