Are Democratic governors playing politics with education? Of course they are. What else explains a governor refusing to join a program that costs his state nothing, gives his students free scholarships, and pulls new money into the state for tutoring, textbooks, and special-needs services?

On Thursday, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued proposed regulations for the first national school freedom program. It is a federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, signed into law by President Donald Trump and championed for years by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Twenty states, nearly all led by Democrats, have not opted in. Their governors like federal involvement in education only when it arrives with strings attached and a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington. Offer them a federal tax credit program that empowers parents instead of bureaucrats, and they say no.