Illinois Democrats are about to take away vouchers from 9,000 low-income students
Jack Elbaum
Video Embed
For a party supposedly concerned about lifting up the underprivileged, Illinois Democrats seem oddly OK with getting rid of a program designed to give low-income students educational opportunities.
Illinois’s Invest in Kids Act, signed into law in 2017, created tax credit scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools. It was going to sunset at the start of 2024, but the Illinois legislature decided to extend it for one year until January 2025.
THE TRUMP INDICTMENT: IRRESPONSIBILITY SQUARED
The program currently serves approximately 9,000 students, but may not for much longer. The 2024 budget was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) on June 7, and it did not include funding for tax credit scholarships. This means the only way the program can continue is if the legislature extends the program separately from the budget, which is unlikely.
This is a bad idea for both the students themselves and the Illinois government.
Let’s start with the students. If the program expires, most of these students will be forced back into Illinois’s traditional public schools because they will not have the means to continue paying private school tuition. Illinois public schools, to put it mildly, are not stellar. Data show only 29.9% of public school students in Illinois between third grade and eighth grade met state standards in reading, along with only 25.8% in math.
That the students who benefit from vouchers are predominantly low-income means they will likely be going back to schools that are performing even worse than average. A report released earlier this year revealed there were 60 schools across Illinois where zero kids tested proficient in either math or reading. The idea that removing students from private schools and putting them back into these failing schools wouldn’t be harmful seems indefensible.
Next, it is also bad for the Illinois government. School choice opponents often claim that vouchers are a raw deal for states, but data show that it would cost Illinois taxpayers upward of $100 million to allow the program to expire. Why? Heritage Foundation fellow Jason Bedrick points out that “The scholarships cost the state only about $8,350 per pupil, less than half of the average $19,700 per pupil at public schools statewide and less than a third of the more than $29,000 per pupil in Chicago public schools.” Consequently, if each of the 9,000 students is no longer able to attend private schools through the voucher and instead the state has to pay in full for their traditional public school education, the costs will be undeniably higher.
So if the program is beneficial for both the students and the state, then why are lawmakers ready to let it expire?
One significant reason is self-interested teachers unions.
Just listen to Illinois’s branch of the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, in its own words: “Thank you for your help! Because of you we successfully kept a voucher extension out of the budget! This is a huge win for public education and our students. It means vouchers are on track to sunset at the end of the year.”
This is no surprise, as the interests of teachers unions and the interests of students are seldom aligned. Moreover, unions have a more than cozy relationship with the Democratic Party. The scandal, then, is that we allow them so much power.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
After all, the people who are most directly affected by Democrat capitulation to the anti-student interests of teachers unions are the very people for whom liberals claim to be working in the best interests: those who are low-income and live in underserved communities.
How exactly they expect those in difficult circumstances to thrive absent a robust education system is anybody’s guess.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.