Prairie State Wire

The new public school funding bill recently passed by the Illinois Legislature includes a scholarship program that would award donated funds to students in lower-income families — up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level — so that they may attend the school of their choice.

Legislators say a provision of SB1947 restricts scholarship eligibility to students in select “focus districts” in the state.

A breakdown from the Illinois Policy Institute reveals the criteria for eligibility: A district must include at least one school ranking in the bottom 10 percent in terms of student performance or a school with a graduation rate of less than 60 percent.

The program also bars individuals and corporations from donating to specific groups of students. Individual donors can contribute to specific schools, but corporate donors cannot.

In these focus districts, the scholarship program does allow students to leave a district with scholarship funds, and school choice advocates hail the general idea as a step toward more options for education. However, the “zip code” approach also has its critics.

Here are the districts that have been identified as “focus districts” under SB1947:

City of Chicago SD 299

Bellwood SD 88

Argo CHSD 217

Berwyn South SD 100

Cicero SD 99

J S Morton HSD 201

Gen George Patton SD 133

Thornton Twp HSD 205

Bremen CHSD 228

Hazel Crest SD 152

CCSD 168

Thornton Fractional Twp HSD 215

Calumet City SD 155

Dolton SD 149

Hoover-Schrum Memorial SD 157

CHSD 218

Rich Twp HSD 227

CUSD 300

SD U-46

Marquardt SD 15

West Chicago ESD 33

Palatine CCSD 15

Wheeling CCSD 21

Waukegan CUSD 60

Beach Park CCSD 3

Zion-Benton Twp HSD 126

Round Lake CUSD 116

Harvard CUSD 50

Rockford SD 205

Belvidere CUSD 100

Carbon Cliff-Barstow SD 36

East Moline SD 37

Rock Island SD 41

United Twp HSD 30

Plano CUSD 88

DePue USD 103

Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89

Addison SD 4

Kankakee SD 111

St Anne CHSD 302

Bloom TWP HSD 206

Chicago Heights SD 170

Aurora East USD 131

Aurora West USD 129

Fairmont SD 89

Chaney-Mongee SD 88

Joliet PSD 86

Joliet Twp HSD 204

Freeport SD 145

East Peoria CHSD 309

Lewistown CUSD 97

South Pekin SD 137

Peoria SD 150

Beardstown CUSD 15

Quincy SD 172

Decatur SD 61

South Fork SD 14

Springfield SD 186

Meredosia-Chambersburg CUSD 11

Western CUSD 12

North Greene CUSD 3

Urbana SD 116

Danville CCSD 118

Georgetown-Ridge Farm CUD 4

Rantoul City SD 137

Rantoul Twp HSD 193

Westville CUSD 2

Centralia HSD 200

Wabash CUSD 348

Alton CUSD 11

Roxana CUSD 1

Granite City CUSD 9

Cahokia CUSD 187

East St. Louis SD 189

Mount Vernon SD 80

Coulterville USD 1

Sparta CUSD 140

Christopher USD 99

Anna Jonesboro CHSD 81

Cairo USD 1

Carrier Mills-Stonefort CUSD 2

Dongola USD 66

Eldorado CUSD 4

Gallatin CUSD 7

Hardin County CUSD 1

Pope Co CUD 1