On May 13, 2026, the Massachusetts Educational Opportunities Coalition launched with 124 member organizations, spearheaded by the National Parents Union, to press Gov. Maura Healey to opt Massachusetts into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit. Former Lt. Gov. Tim Murray estimated the credit could generate roughly $660 million a year for the state.
A new advocacy coalition launched in Massachusetts on May 13, 2026 to pressure Gov. Maura Healey to opt the state into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (§25F), the dollar-for-dollar credit for donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. The Massachusetts Educational Opportunities Coalition (macoalition.com), spearheaded by the National Parents Union and backed by the Pioneer Institute, the Lynch Foundation, and the Boston Foundation, counted 124 member organizations on launch day, according to reporting by the Bay State Banner. That launch-day roster included 45 individual Catholic schools, 18 Montessori schools, and 13 Jewish day schools, alongside umbrella school organizations and dozens of YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs. Former Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, now president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, estimated the credit could generate roughly $660 million annually in Massachusetts.
The mechanics behind the campaign are specific. Under §25F, a state participates only when its governor files an advance election with the IRS and designates qualifying Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). As one coalition framing put it, “The governor has to opt in to get this benefit.” Once a state elects in, donors anywhere in the country can claim a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 per taxpayer for contributions to a qualifying SGO, which then awards K-12 scholarships to families. The credit goes live January 1, 2027. The coalition’s central pitch is that the program “costs the state nothing” because the scholarship money comes entirely from private donations rather than the state budget, an advocacy argument rather than an independently verified fiscal finding. We track the statutory detail behind the cap in our explainer on why the credit is $1,700, not $3,400.
Healey, a Democrat, has not committed. Her administration has said it is waiting on guidance from the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Education before deciding, a posture that places Massachusetts among the blue states still on the sidelines as the 2027 launch approaches. That fence-sitting stands in contrast to the 27 states the IRS counted on its advance-election roster by mid-2026, and to neighboring New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul signaled she would opt in. The Massachusetts standoff is one more data point in how Democratic governors have split on §25F: some leaning in, others waiting for federal cover. The coalition’s strategy is to build a broad, cross-sector membership base, faith schools, secular schools, and community organizations, large enough that opting in becomes politically easier than continuing to decline.
For donors, families, and prospective SGO founders, the practical takeaway is that Massachusetts remains a non-participating state for now. There is no Massachusetts program to plan around, only an executive decision that has not been made, which means Massachusetts taxpayers cannot yet route §25F-eligible donations to in-state organizations and Massachusetts families cannot receive the scholarships. If Healey does elect in, the state would need a slate of designated SGOs ready to intake donations, verify family eligibility, and disburse scholarships before the January 2027 launch. Operators thinking about standing up one of Massachusetts’s first SGOs can review how the organizations work in our explainers and see the current national landscape in the SGO directory; the back-office work of intake, eligibility checks, and scholarship disbursement can be run on software built specifically for §25F. Massachusetts’s current status, and every other state’s, is tracked on our Massachusetts state page and the national participation map.
It is worth noting that the coalition has grown well beyond its launch-day footprint. As of mid-June 2026, macoalition.com describes a membership of more than 6,000 organizations and frames its potential impact around a different figure, roughly $333 million annually at a 15% participation rate, rather than the 124-organization launch framing. The forward question is whether that organizing momentum, and whatever guidance Treasury ultimately issues, is enough to move Healey from “evaluating” to filing an advance election before the 2027 launch. With an organized cross-sector campaign at home and a neighboring blue state already leaning in, whether Massachusetts participates will be measured by one thing: whether the governor ever files an advance election with the IRS.
