Kudos once again to Gov. Jared Polis for standing up — and sticking out his neck — for a promising federal initiative that incentivizes school choice. Thanks to the governor’s recent decision to OK our state’s participation, Colorado’s kids and their counterparts in 26 other states now stand to benefit from this significant stride in educational opportunity.

The new initiative — passed by Congress last July and slated to start in 2027 — will fund scholarships through federal tax credits for K-12 students to attend schools of their choice. The tax credit will offset federal income-tax bills dollar for dollar, up to $1,700, for donors to the scholarship-granting organizations that will support the effort. 

While eligible donations are capped at $1,700, the granting organizations may offer individual scholarships of higher value to help cover a student’s wide-ranging needs. Those needs could include private school tuition as well as tutoring costs for students at public schools. 

Even more compelling is the potential for the tax credit to provide meaningful educational alternatives for kids from households of limited means, trapped in underperforming neighborhood schools. Those at-risk students could benefit profoundly in life-changing ways.

We lauded Polis’ involvement last month, but the governor — a longtime champion of school choice — merits another round of applause for remarks he made the other day reaffirming his embrace of the new initiative. Last week, at a Denver conference of the Invest in Education Foundation, Polis, a Democrat, enthused about the program’s prospects — despite the fact few other states helmed by his fellow Democratic governors are aboard.

“I’m proud that Colorado is the first Democratic state to come online,” Polis told the gathering. “I’m excited about what this means for Coloradans, and I know that many Coloradans will be taking advantage of this tax credit to be able to do a little bit more for kids, investing in kids, closing the achievement gap and providing real opportunities for kids across the country.”

Polis, of course, is known as an “education governor,” and with good reason. He holds a firm grasp on the top issues facing our state’s schools and has a passion for providing Colorado’s kids educational opportunity. The former internet entrepreneur not only started his political career by winning a seat on the state Board of Education, but he also founded two charter schools himself. He has been a consistent champion of Colorado’s groundbreaking charter school movement. 

Polis has been facing headwinds from within his own party over his public education stance. Head-in-the-sand defenders of the don’t-rock-our-boat public education establishment wrongly view the new tax credit as a threat to public ed. 

Never mind that the tax credit requires no expenditure by our state and doesn’t divert any of its K-12 funding stream. Far from jeopardizing public schools, the tax credit stands to help them. It can be used to cover after-school programs as well as tutoring and other costs to bolster kids enrolled at public, neighborhood schools.

As Polis knows, school choice continues to be wildly popular with Colorado parents — almost without regard to party affiliation. Just look at the explosive growth of the state’s public charter schools. There are now more than 260 of the publicly funded, autonomously run charter programs, serving some 15% of all public school students in the state.

Polis — and most parents — get what too many elected officials in his party can’t seem to grasp: The rising tide of school choice truly will lift all boats.