Gov. Kathy Hochul made the promise on May 7, 2026, in the offices of Sol Werdiger, chairman of Agudath Israel of America. She told Agudah's leadership that New York would opt into the new federal scholarship tax credit. In the room, according to Yeshiva World News: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudah's executive vice president; Avi Schnall, its chief operating officer; Yeruchem Silber and Chaskel Bennett.
She kept it on October 9, when New York formally opted in. Thirteen days later, on October 22, Werdiger endorsed her for reelection. His statement thanked her for "putting students before politics." The election is November 3.
Yeshiva World News presented it as a personal endorsement, not Agudah's. We found no formal Agudah endorsement in the race. But part of his statement repeats, word for word, the line he gave as Agudah chairman on October 11, praising the opt-in. Werdiger founded and runs Outerstuff, the youth sports apparel company Blackstone invested in in 2014.
What the credit does
The program comes from the Educational Choice for Children Act, passed inside the July 2025 federal budget law. A taxpayer who gives up to $1,700 to a scholarship-granting organization gets the full amount back as a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit. That money can pay private school tuition. Families earning up to 300% of area median income qualify. It starts January 1, 2027, and a governor has to opt in every year.
A Quinnipiac poll taken October 15 to 19 had Hochul leading Republican Bruce Blakeman 55 to 41.
Hochul is only the second Democratic governor to opt in, after Jared Polis of Colorado, Chalkbeat reported. She did it over the objections of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and both big teachers unions. UFT president Michael Mulgrew called it a failure of leadership.
The campaign swing
The week before the vote looked like a thank-you tour. On October 19, VIN reported, more than 6,000 girls at Bais Rochel in Kiryas Joel welcomed her. On October 20 she was at Bnos Malka Academy in Queens, per JNS. On October 21 she toured Boro Park Hatzolah and met yeshiva administrators with Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein and State Sen. Sam Sutton.
What nobody has said
How much money this is. Hochul herself has said only "millions." A JNS headline put it above $1.5 billion for New York. Yeshiva World News cited $5 billion a year nationally. Treasury projects about $26 billion a year by 2030. Those numbers do not agree with each other.
Who will hand it out. Under the federal rules, the governor cannot choose which scholarship organizations get donations, and New York must send its list of qualifying groups by February 15, 2027. Kol America will track which organizations make that list, who sits on their boards, and how much of the money reaches yeshivas.
How we reported this: based on reporting by Yeshiva World News, VIN, JNS, Chalkbeat, K-12 Dive and Spectrum News, and Agudath Israel's own statements. Dollar estimates come from different sources using different assumptions; none is official for New York. Scholarship organizations that want to tell us how they will operate can reach us at [email protected].