Prairie State Wire

The Illinois Opportunity Project is advocating parents and schools to continue to reach out to legislators in support of the Invest in Kids Scholarship Program. 

The program is the only public school choice system in place in Illinois. 

“Unless there is a last-minute change to the budget, the Invest in Kids Scholarship Program comes to close at the end of the year,” Illinois Opportunity Project said on Facebook. “Contact your legislators now urging them to save this lifeline for over 9,000 families." 

The Illinois Opportunity Project has created a form email to ease communication between Illinoisans and their political leaders. Those interested need only enter their information and the note they want to send to their legislator whom they can reach through the form.

Supporters of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. The program serves more than 9,000 K-12 students.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is not considering the program at the moment.

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

Invest in Kids is supported by Republican General Assembly members who banded together before the May 19 budget deadline to defend the program. 

“We the undersigned members of the Illinois General Assembly are expressing our support of the extension of the ‘Invest in Kids’ Scholarship Fund,” the legislators said in a letter. “This is a shared priority of both caucuses which benefits the education of underprivileged children.”

One of Invest in Kids main opponents is the Illinois Education Association which has placed ads on Facebook seeking to have funding removed from the school choice program. In literature used to support its position, the IEA has said “more white students are helped” by the scholarships. "Of those currently awarded – 9,348 scholarship in total – 1,365 went to black students, 2,280 to hispanic students and 4,392 went to white students."