Before joining what once imagined itself the world’s greatest deliberative body, U.S. senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) was a decorated naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut with four space shuttle missions to his credit. Now, like approximately 80 percent of his senatorial colleagues, Sen. Kelly looks in the mirror in the morning and sees a future president. Before he takes the plunge, however, I hope Sen. Kelly finds the political courage to match the physical courage that won him two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Recently, Sen. Kelly got twenty-nine fellow senators to support his bill to repeal the federal tax credit scholarship program that was created in 2025 and will come into effect next year. A Wall Street Journal editorial quoted Sen. Kelly’s claim that scholarships funded by this program will take “money out of public schools and giv[e] to private ones.” That is false. It was also a rather blatant pander to the teachers’ unions—arguably America’s most reactionary social force, but organizations whose ground game and financial help Kelly surely wants if he makes a run for the White House in the 2028 election cycle.
So, what does this new federal tax credit scholarship program actually do?
Details may be found at the website of the Invest in Education Foundation, but here’s the gist of the program.