Former Democratic mayor goes against the grain in backing school choice, calls for party to embrace it

Former Mayor Jorge Elorza views his role as CEO of Democrats for Education Reform as trying to shift his on school choice.

“Were urging our side to think about what a progressive version of school choice looks like and what are all the forward-thinking, progressive things that you can do with these new funding tools,” Elorza told .

Before leading Democrats for Education Reform beginning in 2023, Elorza served as mayor of Providence, , for two terms from 2015 to 2023.

Democrats for Education Reform is a PAC that “supports and elects Democrats who deliver bold reforms that put students and families first,” its website states.

“I am not one of those people who always thought that I would go into . In fact, I swore that I would never go into politics. But the reason why I jumped into the mayors race was because I wanted to help transform the public schools here in Providence,” Elorza told Fox News Digital. “So education has always been my thing.”

Democrats for Education Reform is currently pushing governors to opt into the federal tax credit program passed into law last year under President Donald Trumps The bill instituted a federal tax-credit scholarship, seeking to expand education opportunities in all 50 states.

Tax-credit scholarships, usually operated at the state level, are a form of school choice that allows individuals or businesses to receive full or partial credits when they contribute to a nonprofit that provides private school scholarships.

Governors, however, have to opt in to the program.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis became the first Democrat to opt into the program in December, telling local media he “would be crazy not to” and that it allows more parents to afford other school programs, such as after-school and summer activities.

Three Democratic governors, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, are reconsidering their stances on the federal tax credit scholarship program after rejecting it initially, according to EdWeek. 

“We were strongly urging governors to opt in right out of the gate,” Elorza told Fox News Digital.

More parents across the U.S. have been seeking schools outside their neighborhood district and opting for charter schools, homeschooling and private schools as some school districts in  to retain students. Homeschooling has also been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to recent data.

Texas, for instance, school choice rollout earlier this year, with more than 100,000 applications for Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) in the first two weeks. 

The TEFA legislation introduced new competition into the education landscape, giving parents options outside the neighborhood school their child is zoned for — and posing challenges for districts struggling to retain students, such as in Houston, which is set to close 12 schools for the next school year.

Teachers unions and other critics of school choice policies such as education savings accounts, vouchers or charter schools argue that these policies allocate money away from traditional public schools instead of boost