For most Illinois students, learning ability is limited by their ZIP code far more than their academic capabilities. But for a short stint between 2017 and 2023, thousands of low-income students had a new opportunity.
The Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program awarded over 40,000 scholarships to low-income students, helping them gain access to educational scholarships that empowered them to reach their full potential in schools beyond the neighborhoods they grew up in. After getting pressure and campaign cash from teachers unions, the Illinois General Assembly ended the program, making Illinois the only state to go against the national trend of increasing school choice.
Now, Illinoisans are getting another chance to access the academic freedom families deserve. A new school choice bill, the Educational Choice for Children Act, was just reintroduced to Congress. It previously was the first nationwide school choice bill to pass out of committee in U.S. history.
If enacted, the program would provide scholarships to K-12 students, which they could use for tuition to private schools and other educational expenses. Those expenses include education technology, online curriculum materials, fees for advance placement exams or college applications, tutoring and special-education resources for students with disabilities.
It could help an estimated 2 million students nationwide in any elementary or secondary education setting, including homeschools.
Sabrina Sibby sent her children to private school through the Invest in Kids program, finding a school close to home that met her children’s unique needs during critical and formative times in their lives.
“Transferring them to private school was the best decision I made physically, but not financially,” Sibby said in 2023, noting it was “only possible through the tax credit scholarship.” Under the proposed federal bill, the same options could open for families like hers.
“Without an extension on the scholarship program, many families would have to make a major decision on whether their child will be in a stable community where they have been their entire educational journey, or risk moving into a place that will traumatize their children,” she said.
The federal bill would offer an income tax credit to those donating to non-profit scholarship granting organizations. Much like Invest in Kids, this bill is about more than offering tax credits to donors. It’s about making an investment in the education of our nation’s future leaders, taxpayers and societal contributors.
When lawmakers ended Invest in Kids, Illinois became the first state to strip scholarships away from students. Instead of doing what’s best for students, lawmakers kowtowed to teachers unions’ influence.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union, a local IFT affiliate, have a history of denying Illinois families their right to choose schools which best fit their children’s needs. Their official opposition to the federal bill has continued this trend.
Illinois must refocus its efforts to help the state’s students in need rather than yield to teachers unions’ agendas. This requires the support of Illinois’ congressional lawmakers and Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. It requires loud voices from Illinois families.
Sibby’s experience was one of many about the significance of Illinois’ tax-credit scholarship programs in the lives of families.
“I know that there are other schools, but Leo is the best school for me. It’s a place where I can be myself and not be judged,” said Ian Holmes-White, who was a freshman at Leo High School in 2023. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I enjoy school.”
Illinois’ powerful and wealthy exercise the privileges of educational freedom every day. Even with their public resistance to school choice, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates has a child currently enrolled in private school. Illinois leaders such as Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Sen. Majority Leader Don Harmon chose private schools for their children.
These leaders understand that sometimes a child’s zoned public school is not the best option for their specific needs, whether that be because of safety, extracurricular activities, class sizes or social circumstances which all play a part in a child’s essential educational experience.
The reasoning behind teachers unions’ hostility to school choice is simple: giving Illinois families the right to alternative schooling options means some students may not choose public schools. A fear of competition is evident, despite Illinois public students’ critically low reading and math scores.
“A lot of kids out there have potential they can’t reach without a scholarship,” Holmes-White said.
State leaders failed these families in 2023 by ending Invest in Kids. The Educational Choice for Children Act is a second chance for Illinois’ low-income students to thrive in a school better suited to their needs.
Jim Long is the vice president of government affairs at the Illinois Policy Institute.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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