Why Is Maryland still waiting while other states move ahead?

When a 6-year-old Baltimore girl was left physically and cognitively impaired by a serious illness, walking again was far from certain. Her parents needed a school that could do more than educate her. It had to provide intensive therapy, individual attention and a staff equipped to help her recover.

They found a private school that believed in their daughter and built her days around both academics and therapy, though her parents worried they could never afford it. The school worked out a payment plan. Over the next eight months, the girl who was not supposed to walk took a step, then another. A year later, she climbed the wall at her school carnival on her own.

Most families in her position are not so fortunate, because the deciding factor is usually not what a child needs, but what a family can afford. The new federal scholarship tax credit is built to ease that burden, putting real money toward a child’s education. Whether Maryland families can use it depends on a decision Gov. Wes Moore has yet to make.

He should look at who already has. Twenty-seven states have formally signed on, and three more have said they will join when the program begins on Jan. 1, 2027. What first looked like a red-state initiative has become something broader: Colorado’s Jared Polis was the first Democratic governor to opt in.

Last month, New York’s Kathy Hochul made clear she intends to follow, despite the same teachers’ union opposition any Democratic governor would face. The credit advances the goals Democrats say matter most: Making education more affordable, helping families pay for tutoring and special education, and expanding opportunity without adding a dollar to the state budget. Public school students can benefit as much as nonpublic ones. The question is no longer whether a Democrat can support this. The question is why Maryland still has not.

The cost of waiting is real. Virginia has already signed on, so a family in Northern Virginia can get this help next year while a family just across the Potomac cannot. And because donors anywhere can claim the credit, but scholarships reach only participating states, Marylanders who give would simply be funding children elsewhere. That is not hypothetical: a recent Morning Consult poll found that 65% of would-be donors would give even if their own state opted out, sending their support to other states.

This is not new state spending. Annapolis is under real budget pressure, but the program is fully federally funded: It would not add a line to Maryland’s budget or take a dollar from public schools. A taxpayer donates up to $1,700 to a nonprofit scholarship organization and receives a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit in return. The donation is private, the credit is federal and the cost to the state is zero.

These scholarships are not just for private tuition. Families earning up to 300% of their area’s median income qualify, which covers most Maryland households, and the money can go toward tutoring, special education, transportation and technology. Public school families may benefit even more than nonpublic ones: An analysis of Arizona’s similar tax credit, which lets taxpayers give to either public schools or scholarship organizations, found more than two-thirds chose public schools. Education Reform Now projects that roughly $275 million in scholarship funds would flow to Maryland if the state opts in.

Moore has said he wants to review the federal rules first, which is fair. But the timeline is real: Scholarship organizations need time to form, recruit donors and prepare before January 2027, and the states that opted in are already moving. This month, the federal government released advance guidance answering the questions Democratic governors have raised.

Polis acted. Hochul signaled she would too. Both saw a program that lowers costs for families, expands opportunity for students and can help public schools as well, and they took it.

Maryland families should not have to watch parents in Virginia, and dozens of other states, get help paying for their children’s education while they are left out. This credit would help families afford the schooling, tutoring, and therapy their children need, at no cost to the state. Gov. Moore should opt Maryland in.

Mickey Rubin is director of Teach Maryland.