BELLE HARBOR — After Jan. 1, 2027, anyone who pays federal taxes can claim a dollar-for-dollar credit of up to $1,700 for donations made to Scholarship Granting Organizations.
However, whether New York taxpayers choose the credit by donating in-state or out-of-state depends on Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has until the end of the year to “opt in” to the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program, a provision of the “Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025.
Under FSTC, people can donate to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs), which are nonprofit groups that award scholarships to eligible students — mostly from lower-income families — to help pay for private school.
However, if Hochul does not opt in, donors will be unable to get the new tax credit for donating to a state SGO. In that case, New York taxpayers will only receive the credit if they donate to an approved out-of-state SGO.
Proponents of Catholic education clamor for Hochul to opt in to FSTC, and they’re calling for support.
“It’s a simple call to action,” John Notaro, executive director of Futures in Education, told The Tablet. “It’s not an overstatement that if New York gets into this program, it’ll be a transformational moment for our schools.”
Futures in Education, which covers tuition for approximately 3,000 students in Catholic schools and academies in the Diocese of Brooklyn, held its annual scholarship fund dinner on April 28, with about 850 Catholic school supporters in attendance.
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Moments before it started, Deacon Kevin McCormack, superintendent of diocesan schools, described the FSTC’s local potential.
“We have 1.5 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens,” he explained. “Let’s say we get a fraction of that. You can do the math — 100,000 people giving $1,700 is a significant amount of money.
“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Deacon McCormack’s example would spur a $170 million influx that could bring vast improvements to the troubled landscape of Catholic school affordability.
More scholarships mean more families can afford the schools, which translates into steady tuition dollars, better teacher salaries, and a hedge against school closures.
The need is great, said Chris Scharbach, principal of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Academy in Belle Harbor.
“We have over 630 students and about 380 families here at St Francis de Sales Catholic Academy,” Scharbach said. “And we have a lot of families with 3, 4, or 5 children, all who attend Catholic education.
“Countless families have a tuition bill that is over $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, especially when you’re adding up Catholic high schools.”
Consequently, he said, some schools face dwindling enrollments and some are forced to close.
“But the story that we don’t always hear is that, in all those schools, there is a population that really wants a Catholic education,” Scharbach said. “Increasing the scholarships that Futures could give would definitely be a home run.”
Hochul, a Democrat up for re-election, is Catholic. She has, however, disappointed members of the faith and its leaders through her ongoing support of abortion rights and, in recent months, the legalization of assisted suicide.
The Church’s positions on those issues are advocated by Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, who is optimistic that Hochul might support opting in on FSTC.
“She has made no commitments, but she also has indicated an openness to this,” Poust said. “She has admitted it sounds like a ‘win-win’ situation.”
He said Hochul was waiting to review regulations from the Treasury Department regarding FSTC, “just to make sure that everything looks good, and there’s no monkey business that she couldn’t agree with.”
“I think that is a perfectly reasonable thing to do,” Poust added.
Deacon McCormack, Sharbach, and Poust said some teachers’ unions oppose the FSTC, which, they explained, can also help public schools.
For example, Poust said state education funding cannot be used for public school uniforms, athletic equipment, or supplies for extracurricular clubs. However, he noted that donations to scholarship programs recognized by FSTC could help public schools cover those costs.
“Teachers’ unions don’t like anything that might help private schools, even if it could help public schools too,” Poust said. “So, there’s that dynamic at play.
“But we’re hearing a lot of good things nationally — that Democratic governors are giving this a very close look. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on them to opt in.”