Democrat Gov Jared Polis Sees Opportunity in Federal School of Choice Funds

By Kevin Mahnken | The 74

"In Colorado, we trust the parents," Governor Jared Polis.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis may be the Democratic Party’s single most prominent supporter of school choice. 

In his life before politics, he co-founded two charter schools in his home state. During his time serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, he authored bipartisan legislation to expand high-performing charters, citing hundreds of thousands of families on waitlists nationwide. And now, in his last year as Colorado’s chief executive, he has even signed on to participate in the Trump administration’s biggest K–12 policy initiative to date: a tax credit designed to expand school choice across the country. 

The benefit, which will come online next January, allows donors to save up to $1,700 on their federal taxes by contributing to organizations that defray students’ educational costs, including private school tuition. Taxpayers from anywhere in the U.S. can give freely and claim the credit, but individual states must opt in for their students to receive the scholarships. To this point, 26 Republican governors have said they will take steps to do so; only Polis and one other Democrat, North Carolina’s Josh Stein, have done the same.

It’s a choice that can’t help but divide the party. Progressives have cast the scholarship credit as an attack on public schools, but those tied to the Democrats’ formerly dominant education reform wing (including former Education Secretary Arne Duncan) hail it as a possible solution to stubbornly low student achievement. Polis himself gave an interview to Fox News explaining his decision as one that would empower both scholarship donors and recipients.

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