Op-ed: NY unions are ‘telling on themselves’ by opposing school choice tax credit

The Washington Post’s editorial board argued in a July 12 essay that it is irresponsible for New York teachers unions and civil rights groups to oppose the Trump administration’s new federal school-choice tax credit despite widespread academic struggles in New York City's public schools.

“In 906 New York City public schools last year, the majority of students failed the standardized tests for math or reading or both,” the Post wrote, citing a report by the Success Academy charter school network. The newspaper called that finding an “eye-popping takeaway,” saying it means 43% of the city's public school students “are being educated in a failing school.”

“Money isn't the problem,” the Post wrote. New York spent about $32,000 per student in fiscal 2024, more than any other state, and spending per student was even higher in New York City. In addition, average teacher pay in New York reached nearly $96,000 during the 2023-24 school year, second only to California, according to the piece.

“The best way to improve a lagging institution's performance is choice and competition,” the Post wrote, pointing to the One Big Beautiful Bill, which “allows taxpayers to deduct up to $1,700 for donations to certain scholarships that help students escape low-quality public schools.” 

States must opt into the program to participate. As Zeale News reported, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in May said that she would opt the state in, which, as the Post reported, would make her the second Democratic governor to do so. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who called the decision a "no brainer,” was the first.

>> New York opts in to Trump’s federal school-choice tax credit program << 

New York, however, was “still not included on the federal list of 29 states that have signed up,” the Post wrote.

“Unions want to make sure it never is,” the newspaper said. The Post reported that on July 9, New York State United Teachers announced a coalition of “more than 60 organizations across the state” was lobbying to oppose New York's entry into the program.

“These civil rights groups and unions are telling on themselves,” the Post wrote, pointing out that “New York City's public schools are failing to adequately educate an unacceptably large proportion of the city's children” while “the state's progressive groups” are “outraged” by a “modest initiative to give some of those children an alternative.”

The Post said the tax credit “would help improve educational outcomes without spending a dollar of the state's budget” and characterized the union-led opposition as an effort by progressive groups to “protect their power, plain and simple.” 

Hochul, the Post concluded, “would do New York City's children a favor by ignoring” the unions.