McMahon came back to Michigan and named the lever: Whitmer can set aside the State Board's vote, and has not

Five months after she stood in a Hamtramck charter school and asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to opt Michigan in, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon was back in the state on August 28, 2026, this time at an America First Policy Institute event in Sterling Heights, and this time with a more specific ask. “We're encouraging Governor Whitmer to opt into this program,” she said, according to The Detroit News. “I believe that the State Board of Education denied that here in Michigan. She has the right to join and override that, but so far she has not done that.” She added: “It's anathema to me that a governor wouldn't want to give the opportunity, if you will, for more choice, in this particular instance, in her state.”

The vote she was referring to happened on May 12, 2026. Michigan's eight-member State Board of Education, which Democrats control six to two, passed a resolution along party lines urging Whitmer not to elect the state into the Education Freedom Tax Credit (also called the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, ECCA, or §25F). The resolution leans on Article VIII, Section 2 of the Michigan Constitution, which says no public monies or property may be appropriated to aid or maintain any private school, and argues public resources should go to schools “that are open to all children and accountable to the people of Michigan.” Board member Pamela Pugh, a Saginaw Democrat, put it as “public resources should strengthen public schools.” Tom McMillin, one of the two Republicans, voted no and said the opposite thing was obvious: “We're not talking about tax dollars.” Both Chalkbeat Detroit and Michigan Advance reported the resolution is advisory only.

That is the part McMahon's word “override” gets slightly wrong, and the correction favors her argument rather than the board's. There is nothing to override. The board has no role in the decision at all. §25F(g)(1)(B) gives the election to “the Governor of the State or by such other individual, agency, or entity as is designated under State law,” and Michigan law designates no one, so the choice sits with Whitmer alone, exactly as it did before May 12. The constitutional objection also runs into the same problem McMillin flagged. A state's election under §25F appropriates nothing. The credit is federal, the money is a private donation to a private nonprofit, and the state's only act is to name the organizations on its list. Whether a program built that way offends a no-aid clause is a live question in the courts for other states, and we have followed the Supreme Court case that could shape it, but Michigan's board did not claim its resolution binds anyone and the department that answered McMahon on Friday did not either.

That answer came fast. The same day, the Michigan Department of Education released a statement titled “MDE Reaffirms Commitment to Public Education, Putting Students First.” It describes §25F as “a new federal program that directs funding to tax credits instead of student supports such as special education and Career and Technical Education,” and quotes State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko: “I fully support the State Board of Education's resolution. We must strengthen public schools, support educators, partner with families and ensure that every child has access to a high-quality education. That is how we put Students First.” McMahon had anticipated that framing. “It's confusing to me why that would not be putting the child first by opting into this program,” she said. Whitmer's office did not comment.

What has changed since March is mostly the calendar. In March, the governor's office said it was awaiting federal guidance, and that was a reasonable thing to say when the guidance did not exist. Treasury has since previewed the rules, put them on its regulatory agenda for the fall, and said it expects proposed regulations by the end of September. Thirty states are on the IRS list, and the credit starts on January 1, 2027. A governor who wanted to wait for the rules will have them within weeks. A governor who wanted to wait for the State Board now has that too.

The practical stakes for Michigan families are the ones McMahon raised in March and did not need to repeat. Under §25F, a donor's credit depends on giving to an organization on some state's list, not on where the donor lives, while the scholarships an organization awards go to students in its own state. We walked through the mechanics in how §25F treats state lines. So a Michigan taxpayer can already claim the full $1,700 in 2027 by giving to a scholarship organization in Ohio or Indiana. What a Michigan student cannot do, until Whitmer files, is receive one.

For anyone in Michigan thinking about the organization side, the useful work does not depend on Lansing. An organization that wants to be on the state's list the day one exists needs 501(c)(3) status, a plan to serve at least ten students across more than one school, and books that can prove 90% of its income goes to scholarships. Start with the free SGO builder, read how to start an SGO, check the SGO directory, and track the decision on the Michigan state page.

The thing to watch is short: a Form 15714 from the governor's office, or a statement explaining why there will not be one. Whitmer is in her final year in office, and she shared the Sterling Heights stage with a congressional candidate, so the pressure will not ease before November. But the decision has not moved in five months, and the one person who can move it has said nothing since March.