Prairie State Wire

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling out Illinois Democrats for not funding the Invest In Kids Tax Scholarship Program. 

He blamed Illinois Democrats saying they "killed the Invest in Kids program that gave school choice to 9,000 low-income kids.” 

“No doubt many of these politicians send their own kids to private schools,” Pompeo said on Facebook. “What an insult to Illinois families.” 

Missing from the 3,500 pages of the state’s $50.5 billion budget was $475 million in funding needed for the continuation of the Invest In Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Program. The program allows its donors to receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. It serves more than 9,000 K-12 students. 

“This is not something that’s been covered by the budget agreement," Gov. Pritzker said at a press conference announcing a budget deal had been struck. It’s something that still has time, potentially, but it’s not something that’s in the budget agreement.” 

The Invest In Kids Tax Scholarship Program provides backing for needy children to attend private schools but is slated set to sunset on Dec. 31 if not extended by the General Assembly. 

“It's not about left or right. It's not about liberal or conservative, but it's about the children, specifically underprivileged children and the children needing additional academic support,” State Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) said on the House floor, according to East Central Reporter. “These scholarships can benefit students who are academically gifted, but it also benefits nearly 1,000 students who have unique academic needs and learning disabilities." 

Miller added that the Invest In Kids Tax Scholarship Program "is incredibly diverse, with 60% of the scholarship recipients being non-white." He also said that it is need-based.

"Two-thirds of the scholarship recipients have an average household family household income at a moderately above federal poverty level," Miller said. "Seventy percent of their scholarship recipients meet federal guidelines to be eligible for free or reduced lunch program. These people who donate to this scholarship fund are enthusiastic about supporting the education of underprivileged children.”

The Valdivia family is among those of the 9,348 families in Illinois who will have to figure out how to replace the scholarship benefit, whether through personal funding or sending children to public schools. Of Gerardo Valdivia Sr.’s four children, three take advantage of the scholarship program. The youngest is unable to receive the benefit as she is in pre-K. 

“All this means for me is that either I have to pick up a second job because I'm not going to take my kids out of private education,” Valdivia told Chicago City Wire. “But what's going to happen if I take time away from my kids? Then I can't pay attention to my kids, as much as I should. My two oldest are teenagers now, you know, and like I said in the neighborhood that they're growing up in, they need the presence of a father. They need the presence of their mother. They're going to have a parent working two jobs and also making sure that they're not wandering off after school outside in the street. And that's like it's not just my family that every family, every family out there that's working hard to provide for their families.” 

Valdivia added, “all they're asking is for a little bit of help to be able to send their kids to a Catholic school or a Lutheran school or a Jewish school.

"Whatever it is, you know, what's really sad about this. You don't see any other state in the country taking away these programs and I said it once, I'll say it again, Illinois can’t be the first state to lose this."