If you read my last post, Real School Choice, you know how important school choice is to the future of many children, especially those from low-income families. School choice is the key for the children of these families to escape poverty and lead productive lives. But not everyone agrees.
The State of Illinois has just declared that teachers unions are more important than children. That’s the message they sent to 9,600 low-income children when they killed their scholarships to private schools. The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “Sometimes the worst political scandals occur in plain sight, even if most of the press corps chooses not to notice. That’s what happened last week in Illinois, where the Democratic-union machine killed scholarships for 9,600 low-income children.”
The state and national teachers union made a priority of blocking an extension of the Invest in Kids program that provided a 75% state tax credit for donations to help families afford private schools. The unions claim the credit drained money from public schools, but public funding has increased nearly $2 billion since Invest in Kids began under former Gov. Bruce Rauner. Only 35% of Illinois children read at grade level, according to Wirepoints, so no wonder there are more than 20,000 children on the Invest in Kids waiting list.
Current Gov. J.B. Pritzker refused to help save the program, even for children currently benefiting from it. Those families will now have to find some other way to pay tuition. Empower Illinois, the state’s largest scholarship-granting organization, says it will seek private donors to cover tuition. But the most common donation was $1,000, and many of those smaller donors may disappear without the tax credit.
Gov. Pritzker is a billionaire, and his Pritzker Family Foundation could help. According to Crain’s Chicago Business Journal, the foundation has donated $8.3 million to Milton Academy, the Massachusetts boarding school Mr. Pritzker attended. It has donated $2.5 million to Duke University, according to Carolina Journal, and $100 million to Northwestern Law School, which has renamed itself in his honor. Invest in Kids is a bargain by comparison, requiring about $71 million for the coming year.
The WSJ says, “Illinois is now the first state to kill a major school-choice program. The scandal reflects the bloody-mindedness of the unions that want to snuff out even minor competition to retain their monopoly. And it reveals how little most Democrats care about the children they imprison in these failure factories.”
While most states are increasing the scope of their school choice programs, Illinois is killing theirs. This is not surprising since Illinois is a deep blue state controlled by the Democrats and Democrats are the strongest supporters of teachers unions. Don’t look to the White House for any help, however, since First Lady Jill is also a member of the teachers unions. President Biden has made it clear he will always be a friend of the teachers unions.
The only solution to this problem for residents of Illinois is to vote for Republicans, or vote with their feet by moving to red states that value school choice. Many Illinois residents have already made this decision as the following graphic shows. Illinois leads the nation, along with New York, in losing the most residents in the last census.
