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On Wednesday, Michelle Lujan Grisham opted New Mexico into the federal scholarship tax credit, the third Democratic governor to sign on after Jared Polis and Kathy Hochul. Her successor, Deb Haaland, is sworn in on Jan. 1. That is also the deadline to opt in.

That timing is the subject of tonight’s Whiteboard Notes. Under Treasury’s rules, a state files by Jan. 1 and completes its election with a certified list of scholarship organizations by Feb. 15. A completed election can’t be revoked for the year. Arianna Prothero at Education Week reports that the outgoing Democratic governors of California, Maine and Michigan haven’t announced their plans, and opting in on the way out would spare their Democratic successors from taking a position. Every Republican governor except Vermont’s Phil Scott has already joined. Six Democrats elected Tuesday lead states that opted in, and for them the first real decision comes in 2028. Phil Weiser has said he’ll pull Colorado out. Aaron Ford is reviewing whether Nevada’s participation is legal.

Last night I wrote that state programs with families already enrolled are hard to unwind. Prothero’s piece has both sides of that fight. Randi Weingarten says candidates who “rejected private school vouchers triumphed” in Texas, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio. Tommy Schultz of the American Federation for Children counts nearly 2 million students in state programs and warns governors who ran on affordability not to “take scholarships from low-income families and students with special needs.” Jorge Elorza of Democrats for Education Reform poses a different question: “What does a progressive version of an education savings account look like?” Fordham’s Mike Petrilli expects “a tough couple years for education reform,” and Education Next makes a similar case.

Ben’s edition also counts up to 16 states that could have a new education chief by January. Since last night, Robert Franklin won in Oklahoma and inherits the Strong Readers Act, whose third-grade retention rule starts in 2027-28. Richard Barrera won California after Sonja Shaw conceded. The research hub stays open to everyone through the weekend.

One more read, and its subject crosses party lines. Emily Hanford’s Sold a Story helped push at least 26 states to change how reading is taught. She told TIME the biggest reading reforms came mostly in conservative Southern states, while many of the researchers behind them “are as left as left can be.” Season two takes on Direct Instruction, Zig Engelmann’s scripted, call-and-response method, which is used in fewer than 200 schools. Her explanation for the resistance: “We expect teachers to be like the Beatles or Taylor Swift, singer-songwriters who can do it all.” APM Reports found that teachers who use the method tend to like it, and Hanford says they explain it simply: “I don’t have to stay up late lesson-planning. I can have a life.”

— Thomas

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