Prairie State Wire

The Illinois Freedom Caucus has drawn attention to the alarming convergence of inadequate education and daily violence in certain Chicago neighborhoods, highlighting the grim choices parents face: staying within the failing public school system, hoping for educational alternatives, or leaving the city altogether.

Illinois Freedom Caucus underscores the need for school choice as a means to provide better educational opportunities to underserved children in these violence-stricken communities.

“This headline truly says it all. While dismal education is an issue all across Illinois (another reason to support Invest in Kids!), in few places do these children also have to face violence every day,” the Illinois Freedom Caucus said on Facebook.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus linked to a Wirepoints story noting some of Chicago's most violence-stricken neighborhoods with abysmal education systems.

In those neighborhoods parents are faced with the grim choices of enduring the inadequate public school system, hoping for educational choice, or leaving the city altogether, as the decline in Chicago's student population indicates.

While some, like Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis-Gates, have the means to exercise educational choice by sending their children to private schools, most families in these communities lack such resources, making the implementation of school choice crucial to offer better educational opportunities to children who are being left behind.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO and mayoral candidate, Paul Vallas, has criticized Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates for her opposition to school choice programs, particularly the Invest in Kids scholarship initiative, despite sending her own children to private schools.

Vallas pointed out the hypocrisy in Gates' stance, who sends her own children to private schools, arguing that parents should have the option to choose the best educational opportunities for their children, especially those who lack the resources to find better alternatives within the public school system.

Davis Gates has used racialized language in opposition to school choice programs.

“On Twitter, she has said things like ‘School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children.’ Private schools are ‘Segregation Academies,’ she wrote on Twitter. ‘Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds – vouchers – so your northern cousins understand better,’ she said. And she linked to an article titled ’The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers,’” Mark Glennon wrote for Wirepoints.

Notably, Hispanics are found to be over-represented and white under-represented among the number of Invest In Kids scholarship holders, while Black student participation is in line with state demographics.

Of those currently awarded – 9,348 scholarships in total – 1,365 / 14% went to Black students, 2,280 / 24% to Hispanic students and 4,392 / 46% went to white students 

Those facts about the racial makeup of the state and the scholarship holders did not faze 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 against Invest In Kids, the Illinois Education Association has argued that “more white students are helped” by the scholarships, Prairie State Wire previously reported.

The scholarships for needy children have been defunded in the latest state budget signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.