Teachers Unions Protest Hochul’s Yeshiva Tuition Relief Plan

New York teachers unions and allied groups are organizing a protest Wednesday at United Federation of Teachers headquarters in Manhattan, pushing back against Governor Kathy Hochul‘s plan to opt New York into a federal tax credit scholarship program that could bring meaningful tuition relief to tens of thousands of frum and Anash families across the state.

As reported by Anash.org several months ago, Governor Hochul told Agudah askanim during a private meeting at the offices of Agudah Chairman Reb Shloime Werdiger that New York plans to opt in to the federal scholarship tax credit program.

While Hochul has not yet formally opted the state in, her reported intention to participate was immediately controversial among New York’s teachers’ unions, which have organized opposition through a coalition called New Yorkers for Public Schools.

Meanwhile, her office says it is still awaiting federal guidance and reviewing the program for provisions that could harm New York’s education system, and as of this week, she has not filed the required paperwork with the IRS to make the opt-in official.

The program stems from H.R. 1, President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provides a $1,700 federal tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which then distribute the money to eligible students for expenses including private school tuition, tutoring and other qualified educational expenses.

This could allow tens of thousands of frum families whose children attend yeshivos and private schools across the state to receive scholarships, potentially providing meaningful and significant tuition relief for families struggling with the high cost of private education.

The push for a federal scholarship tax credit built momentum over several years, advancing first as a national school choice effort aimed at letting taxpayers fund scholarship organizations directly.

It gained further traction when more than fifty public officials joined a new initiative urging Congress to adopt school choice, before the proposal ultimately cleared a key hurdle when the school choice measure made it through the Senate as part of Trump’s broader tax and spending package, which made the credit permanent and removed the earlier cap on total donations.

School choice has long been a difficult issue for Democrats, many of whom argue that choice programs pull resources away from public education. Hochul would become the third Democratic governor to do so if she follows through.

Some in the community are urging a grassroots counterprotest coalition from private schools across the state, including both yeshivos and, l’havdil, Catholic schools, saying that it could make a huge difference.

Organizers believe that a large turnout of private-school families could send a strong message to the governor and demonstrate the broad support for the program among families who stand to benefit from it.