Each week, The Weekly Brew brings you a collection of the most viewed stories from The Daily Brew, condensed. Here are the top stories from the week of July 27 - July 31.
Eleven states have passed laws related to the Education Freedom Tax Credit this year
Eleven states have passed laws this year related to the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), which goes into effect in 2027. These bills take various actions that shape how or if a state will participate in the program.
The EFTC is a dollar-for-dollar nonrefundable tax credit, meaning individuals can lower their federal tax liability by $1 for every $1 donated to accredited scholarship-granting organizations (SGO). SGOs distribute the donated scholarship funds to eligible families for a variety of private or public educational expenses, including private school tuition, tutoring services, textbooks, and more. To qualify for scholarships, students must live in households earning no more than 300% of the area's median gross income and be eligible for K-12 enrollment.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which President Donald Trump (R) signed into law in July 2025, created the EFTC. The OBBBA provides two mechanisms of state autonomy in the EFTC: the authority to opt in (or not), and the authority to compile a list of SGOs that will participate in the program.
Of the 31 states that have indicated they will participate in the EFTC, legislatures in eight have enacted bills requiring their states to opt in. Other state legislatures have adopted requirements for implementing the program, such as designating a specific state entity to compile a list of official SGOs or setting conditions for state participation.
49 states have passed at least one deepfake law since 2019
This week, Ballotpedia released its third annual deepfake legislation report. Two years after the launch of our Artificial Intelligence Deepfake Legislation Tracker in June 2024, the report provides an update on the status of state legislation intended to regulate deepfakes.
Deepfakes are videos, images, or audio files that individuals create or manipulate using artificial intelligence in order to realistically portray something that did not occur. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Deepfakes rely on artificial neural networks, which are computer systems modeled loosely on the human brain that recognize patterns in data. Developing a deepfake photo or video typically involves feeding hundreds or thousands of images into the artificial neural network, ‘training’ it to identify and reconstruct patterns—usually faces.”
State lawmakers have enacted 58 bills related to deepfakes so far this year, down from the 64 bills enacted by the same point in 2025. Forty-nine states have now passed at least one deepfake law since 2019.
Voters to decide on at least six statewide voter ID measures this year, the most ever in a single year
Voters will decide at least six ballot measures related to voter identification requirements in 2026. That’s the largest number of voter identification measures on the ballot ever in a single year.
Each of these measures would establish or expand voter identification requirements in state constitutions.
Legislatures placed four of the measures on the ballot, while the other two are citizen initiatives. Oklahoma voters will decide on one measure on Aug. 25, and Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio voters will decide on the other five on Nov. 3. Initiatives on voter identification are also pending signature verification in Colorado and Michigan.
Kansas voters to decide whether to become the 22nd state to elect supreme court members or keep unique bar-controlled commission
When Kansas voters head to the polls for the state’s Aug. 4 primary, they will also decide whether to join 21 other states in electing its supreme court justices. Currently, Kansas is the only state that uses a nominating commission in which the state bar association appoints the majority of the members.
The Kansas Elections for Supreme Court Justices Amendment would abolish the existing Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission and require staggered direct elections of the justices. It would also authorize the Kansas Legislature to develop rules regarding the elections, including whether the elections would be partisan or nonpartisan. Justices' terms would remain the same at six years, and vacancies would be filled via an election.
The amendment would also repeal a provision prohibiting Kansas Supreme Court justices from holding any office in a political party or organization, as well as from directly or indirectly making contributions to, or taking part in, political campaigns. This prohibition would still apply to lower court judges holding nonpartisan offices, except when such a judge is running for a seat on an appellate court.
Five 2026 ballot measures address sex-based school sports eligibility, certain medical procedures for transgender minors
In 2026, voters will decide at least five ballot measures on sex-based requirements for school sports and bans on certain medical procedures for transgender minors. States began passing laws similar to these ballot measures in 2020 and 2021, but this year will be the first time voters have decided on either issue at the ballot box.
Arizona, Colorado, and Washington will decide measures that would establish sex-based requirements for participation on school athletic teams, with varying regulations and methods for determining sex. Colorado and Missouri will decide measures that would prohibit certain medical and surgical procedures for transgender minors when provided to alter sex characteristics.
Voters in Nebraska could decide on a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to prohibit "athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls" from being "open to students of the male sex." On June 30, the campaign behind the initiative filed signatures, which local officials must review within 40 days of receiving them.