Rhode Island's McKee signs the first-in-the-nation law stripping a governor's power to join §25F alone

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat, signed H7163 into law on Thursday, June 18, 2026, resolving a cliff-hanger we had been tracking and making Rhode Island the first state in the country to legally require both the legislature and the governor to agree before it can join the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (§25F). McKee signed the measure the same day he signed a separate three-year moratorium on new public charter schools. The scholarship-tax-credit bill had cleared the General Assembly by veto-proof margins, 57 to 13 in the House and 34 to 4 in the Senate, with Rep. Susan Donovan and Sen. Sam Bell as lead sponsors, so a veto would likely have been overridden. We first reported the bill's passage and transmittal on June 16.

What McKee signed does not by itself decline §25F. It removes the governor’s ability to enroll Rhode Island on his own through the IRS advance election (Form 15714) and instead requires an act of the General Assembly first. In his signing statement, McKee wrote that “scholarship-granting organization tax credits are, in practice, voucher programs that redirect public resources toward private institutions,” and that “major decisions with long-term consequences for our students, schools, and taxpayers deserve thoughtful consideration and agreement among Rhode Island’s elected leaders.” He stopped short of slamming the door entirely, indicating he might support participation if Treasury’s final guidance limited the credit to uses like “after-school tutoring, transportation, and educational technology, without supporting private school tuition.” Reaffirming the line he has held for months, McKee said he is “not a voucher guy” but wanted to see the formal program rules first.

The law is the most explicit version yet of a tactic Democratic-led states have reached for: rather than a flat gubernatorial refusal, it builds a structural barrier into the opt-in itself. Rhode Island’s approach echoes Vermont’s H.933, which sought to condition any opt-in, and it sharpens the unresolved federalism question we examine in our analysis of whether §25F is a federal floor or a ceiling on state restrictions. It is the inverse of the calculus that pushed Oregon’s Gov. Kotek to decline a week earlier: where Kotek objected that Treasury would not let states add their own SGO rules, Rhode Island’s legislature moved to make sure no future governor could opt in without it.

The signing drew reaction on both sides. Sen. Bell defended the measure by looking past the current administration: “I don’t think Governor McKee would opt in, however, I don’t know what future governors are going to do.” That comment captures why the law exists at all: McKee could already keep Rhode Island out simply by never filing the advance election, so the bill’s real target is not him but whoever holds the office next, converting a one-signature gubernatorial decision into one that requires an act of the General Assembly. Signing rather than vetoing also spared McKee a fight he would have lost, since the legislature’s margins were large enough to override a veto. Opponents called it a missed opportunity for federal dollars that cost the state treasury nothing. Former Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, now CEO of Democrats for Education Reform, had urged McKee to veto the bill, calling participation “such a no-brainer,” and Republican House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale characterized the law as rejecting “free federal money.” That zero-cost design, a participating state spends nothing of its own to open the door, is the counter-pressure that keeps the question alive even after a state erects a gate.

For Rhode Island donors, families, and prospective scholarship organizations, the practical takeaway is that Rhode Island has no path into §25F before the program’s January 1, 2027 launch unless the General Assembly passes a participation bill and a governor signs it. The bill does not change the federal credit’s mechanics: donors in participating states can give up to $1,700 to a qualified Scholarship Granting Organization and claim a dollar-for-dollar federal credit, a figure that is fixed regardless of how the state-conditions fight resolves, as we explain in our coverage of why the credit is $1,700, not $3,400. The broader opposition that produced this law, from teachers’ unions to congressional Democrats pushing repeal, is detailed in our coverage of who opposes §25F. Rhode Island’s status, now gated behind the legislature, is tracked on our Rhode Island state page and the national participation map. Operators who want the back-office infrastructure ready in case Rhode Island ever acts can review how the organizations work in our explainers and the current landscape in the SGO directory.