Education Secretary McMahon visits Hamtramck charter school to press Whitmer to opt Michigan into §25F

On March 27, 2026, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon traveled to Hamtramck Academy, a charter school of roughly 550 students in Hamtramck, Michigan, to publicly press Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to opt the state into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (§25F). The program, which becomes available January 1, 2027, lets taxpayers claim a dollar-for-dollar federal credit of up to $1,700 per taxpayer for donations to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations, with scholarships flowing to households earning up to 300% of area median gross income and usable across public, private, religious, and homeschool options. McMahon was joined by Republican Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) and several Republican state legislators, including Tim Kelly, Matt Maddock, Alicia St. Germaine, Joseph Pavlov, and Mike Harris. Importantly, this was a federal-official advocacy visit, not a state action: Michigan has not opted in, and no signing, executive order, statute, or IRS advance election occurred.

The mechanism McMahon emphasized is the one that makes §25F a state-by-state contest. The credit is federal, but it only functions in states whose governors (or legislatures) make an advance election to participate, after which qualified SGOs in that state can receive credit-eligible donations and award scholarships. McMahon's central warning was about that geography of money: if Michigan does not opt in, donations from Michigan taxpayers would not stay home but would instead flow to SGOs in states that have already joined, funding scholarships for families elsewhere. She asserted that 27 states had already opted in as of late March, a figure that is her own characterization rather than a confirmed IRS or Treasury count, and one worth treating as an attributed claim until the federal government publishes an official list of participating states. The credit cap of $1,700 applies per donor on the federal credit, not as a ceiling on what any single scholarship can be worth.

Whitmer's office did not move. It held to an awaiting-federal-guidance posture, having previously described the program as a “high-level talking point” that needed more information before the state could evaluate it. That cautious stance places Michigan among the Democratic-led states still weighing whether to participate, a split we track in our coverage of how Democratic governors are dividing on §25F. It stands in contrast to early movers like Virginia, where Glenn Youngkin made his state the first to opt in, and to New York under Gov. Kathy Hochul. Three days later, on March 30, Speaker Hall publicly renewed the call, framing participation as a literacy and educational-support benefit for Michigan families and repeating the warning that the state would forfeit tax benefits to other states by sitting out.

For donors and prospective SGO founders, the practical takeaway is that Michigan remains a non-participating state for now, which means Michigan taxpayers cannot yet route §25F-eligible donations to in-state organizations. Michigan's current status, and every other state's, is tracked on our Michigan state page and the national participation map. Operators thinking about standing up one of Michigan's first SGOs (so the infrastructure exists if and when the state elects in) can review how the organizations work in our explainers and see the current 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.

The forward question is whether sustained federal and legislative pressure changes Whitmer's calculus before the 2027 launch. With the program opening January 1, 2027 and a 2026 election cycle in between, Michigan's decision could fall to either the current administration or its successor, and the longer the state waits, the longer Michigan donors will have credit-eligible dollars with nowhere in-state to send them. Whether McMahon's visit marks the start of a real opt-in push or a one-day photo opportunity will be measured by whether Michigan ever files an advance election with the IRS.