New York’s Education Expansion & Preserving Federalism: Jonathan Williams on the Hugh Hewitt Show
"Americans move for economic opportunity. They move to make their lives better off, and they move for education freedom."
Hugh Hewitt spoke with ALEC President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams about New York opting into a federal education tax credit scholarship program and the broader effects of education freedom and state policy choices.
The conversation began by diving into New York’s decision to opt into the federal scholarship tax credit program, becoming the 31st state overall and the second Democratic-governed state to join the program.
“Well, this is the big one,” Williams emphasized. “Kudos to Governor Hochul for doing the right thing on this one and aligning with this great movement that we’ve been working on from an ALEC perspective all across the country.”
Hewitt then dove into the mechanics of the program, under which, starting in 2027, individuals may contribute up to $1,700, or married couples up to $3,400, to qualified scholarship-granting organizations and receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit. Williams followed up by pointing out how it could help states by expanding education freedom opportunities while offsetting fiscal costs.
“This is something that’s federally financed because the federal government correctly realizes that education opportunity is a huge goal that needs to be furthered across the country,” Williams explained.
Hewitt followed up by asking if the rollout of this program will have a significant impact on future rankings featured in the ALEC State Index of Education Freedom.
“I think it’s going to play right into what we’re seeing play out across the country when it comes to the state education freedom revolution that we’ve been happy to be a part of from an ALEC perspective,” he noted. “You see this play out with this migration of families going to states that have more business opportunities, more employment opportunities, and more opportunities for kids. So you really can’t separate the two in terms of economic freedom and education freedom going hand in hand.”
The conversation continued from that point into the larger theme of federalism, as Hewitt commented, “Nothing works like federalism, and people vote with their feet,” when it comes to people moving to states that provide the best opportunities for them. Williams agreed, pointing to how federalism lets people respond to state policies by relocating.
“That’s the American experiment,” Williams emphasized, “And it’s a wonderful thing that, when you think about it in the grand course of world history, it’s awfully rare that countries have experimented with this kind of bottom-up governance that we have in the United States.”
He reiterated that sentiment, noting how people move for opportunities thanks to programs and policy solutions that provide the best options.
“They move for economic opportunity. They move to make their lives better off, and they move to give their kids a better chance with things like this education freedom movement that we were just talking about.”