Appreciate you sharing this link! You mention that these scholarships "can't be said to be taking any money from their public schools." But since school funding is determined based on student enrollment, wouldn't public schools lose funding if students use these funds to attend private schools?

Thanks! It's not obvious to me how much of a bind there is for D governors/legislatures here since it's not clear to me how much latitude they have to decide what the scholarships can and can't go to.

Meaning that if they have no latitude, they simply won't opt in?

No, as in it's not clear (at least to me) what they can opt in to as "other education expenses".

It seems like the law uses 26 U.S. Code § 530(b)(3)(A) for the definitions of "qualified elementary and secondary education expenses." uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?h...

So it seems /possible/ that a gov could do something like choose to elect "scholarship granting organizations" that provide scholarships for transportation to public schools.

Yeah that's the kind of thing I'm imagining BUT I figure there's some other things that could happen on the regulations and rulemaking side, particularly in a totally hypothetical extremist or lawless administration.

Oh for sure! Gaming out any non-private-school-tuition use of these funds is difficult when an admin might illegally impound federal funding for schools.

Going back to Petrilli's notes: There still might be way for a gov to use this law to drive a wedge in Trump's coalition. For instance, working with orgs to provide scholarships for students with IEPs in public schools /might/ support enough students to make it harmful for Trump to block funding.

And, as you highlight, all my speculation is before additional regulation and rulemaking from the legislation...