New Jersey Gov. Sherrill won't commit to §25F opt-in, says she will 'evaluate' after Treasury finalizes rules

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has declined to commit to opting New Jersey into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (§25F), telling Jewish Insider on May 12, 2026 that she will wait for federal rules before deciding. In a statement reported by the outlet, deputy press secretary Maggie Garbarino said the governor “will evaluate the program once the Trump Administration has finalized and published its rules,” and stressed that Sherrill’s top priority is building New Jersey into the best public school system in the nation for all of the state’s children. Sherrill, a Democrat, was sworn in on January 20, 2026 as New Jersey’s 57th governor. The non-committal posture leaves New Jersey off the IRS advance-election roster, which counted 27 states as of mid-April 2026, none of them New Jersey.

The timing is notable. The statement came days after neighboring New York signaled it would participate: Gov. Kathy Hochul committed to opt in during a meeting with Jewish leaders, a verbal commitment reported by Jewish Insider on May 8, 2026 and folded into her FY2027 executive budget proposal. New York has not yet filed a formal advance election with the IRS, and Hochul, like Sherrill, said her office wants to review the federal details first. But the contrast placed Sherrill’s “evaluate later” language against a neighboring Democratic governor who had already said yes in principle. We track that broader divide in our coverage of how Democratic governors have split on §25F.

The mechanics behind the decision are straightforward. Under §25F, a state opts in when its governor files an advance election with the IRS (Form 15714) and designates qualifying Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Donors anywhere in the country can then claim a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 per taxpayer for contributions to a qualifying SGO, which awards K-12 scholarships to families earning up to 300% of their area median gross income. The credit goes live January 1, 2027. A state that does not file an election simply does not have a program: its residents see no in-state SGOs to give to, and its families cannot receive the scholarships, even though the federal credit exists. For the statutory detail on the cap, see our explainer on why the credit is $1,700, not $3,400.

For donors, families, and prospective SGO founders, the practical takeaway is that New Jersey remains a non-participating state for now. There is no New Jersey program to plan around, only an executive decision that has not been made, which means New Jersey taxpayers cannot yet route §25F-eligible donations to in-state organizations. A grassroots push is trying to change that: OptInNJ.org, run by the NJ Academic Access Coalition of parents, educators, and community members, is urging Sherrill to issue New Jersey’s intent to opt in before the January 1, 2027 launch. New Jersey’s current status, and every other state’s, is tracked on our New Jersey state page and the national participation map. Operators thinking about standing up one of New Jersey’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 the federal rules Sherrill is waiting on arrive in time to force a decision before the 2027 launch. Treasury has begun previewing its §25F regulations, and the closer the program gets to January 1 without a New Jersey election, the longer New Jersey donors will hold credit-eligible dollars with no in-state place to send them. With a neighboring blue state already leaning in and an organized opt-in campaign at home, whether Sherrill’s “evaluate” stance becomes a yes will be measured by one thing: whether New Jersey ever files an advance election with the IRS.