Sara Hazel runs the Denver Public Schools Foundation. Over the summer, she set up a separate scholarship granting organization so the foundation can take donations under the new federal tax credit starting January 1. The money will go to tutoring and to the fees districts already charge families, like field trips and afterschool programs. She'd like it to cover transportation too, but she's waiting on guidance. "I like to frame it as new opportunities for Denver kids," she told The 74's Linda Jacobson.

Hazel is one of the people the Treasury rules released this morning were written for. My colleague Evo Popoff walked through the mechanics in Whiteboard Notes today, so I'll skip those. The detail I'd watch is eligibility. Families already on SNAP or another need-based program qualify automatically. "Simply showing that you qualify for that government assistance program is sufficient, and no additional paperwork is necessary," a Treasury official said on a call with reporters.

That matters because the fight over this program is about who ends up using it. The Washington Post has Randi Weingarten calling the program "a poison pill for the 90 percent of American children who attend public schools." The 74 has Josh Cowen, the Michigan State professor who has written critically about vouchers for years, saying he didn't see any "poison pills" in the rules and that the reporting requirements are stricter than most state choice programs. Both are reading the same document.

The complaints don't line up neatly either. Colleen Hroncich at Cato thinks Treasury's narrow definition of "school" will shut out homeschoolers and microschoolers in many states. Narric Rome at Accelerate, which funds tutoring research, says the rules put almost no quality controls on the tutoring SGOs can pay for. Jorge Elorza of Democrats for Education Reform says governors who move now get to shape the program and the ones who wait will watch their residents' tax dollars fund scholarships elsewhere. The Southern Education Foundation, which announced in September that it would help SGOs direct money to public school families, has come around. "Our position has evolved as we have learned more about this law," Raymond Pierce, its president, said in a statement to the Post. He called it a chance to bring resources to Black students and students from low-income communities "while also bringing evidence and accountability to how those resources are used." North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and New York, all with Democratic governors, have signaled they're in, ABC News reports. Wisconsin and Oregon have said no.

Treasury projects $26 billion a year by 2030, K-12 Dive notes, more than the current Title I appropriation. Brookings, extrapolating from Ohio's state credit, projects something far smaller and skewed toward wealthier counties. Nobody will know who's closer until the first tax returns come in.

Kevin Salinger, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, told a coalition call Thursday that guidance on eligible expenses comes by the end of the year, and that final regulations probably won't be in place until 2028. "We're going to see where the kinks are and we're going to smooth them out," he said. Donations start January 1.

— Thomas

Looking for your next opportunity in education? W/A Jobs features 3,100+ career opportunities from 300+ organizations across the education industry.