By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
It’s incredible that Illinois politicians and the teachers unions are focused on maiming – or even killing – the state’s tiny 9,700-student school choice program when states across the country are not only expanding school choice, but making it universally available for every single student in their state.
What’s even more cruel, they want to kill the program – the Invest in Kids Act – even though a whopping 1.2 million Illinois public school students can’t read at grade level and 1.4 million aren’t proficient in math.
Hundreds of thousands of kids are trapped in failing schools across the state. Those children need more choices, not less. School choice should be a litmus test for every politician in upcoming elections.
Illinois’ legislature meets for just three more days this year and the Invest in Kids Act will be the most important issue they contemplate. The $75 million tax-credit scholarship program expires this year and if it’s not extended by lawmakers, it dies.
If that happens, Illinois will be the first state in the country to wipe out an entire existing school choice program.
Hundreds of thousands unable to read
Illinois’ recent 2023 Report Card shows that 65% of the state’s 1.86 million public school children can’t read at grade level. That’s 1.2 million students. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a large share of those kids are more than a year behind. Many are basically illiterate.
School districts in cities like Decatur, Peoria, Elgin, Waukegan, Rockford and Chicago, are no longer institutions of learning. Look at the numbers in the graphic below and it becomes obvious that parents in these districts urgently need an alternative to their public schools.
More than 25,000 students can’t read at grade level in Elgin’s public schools. It’s a similar number in Rockford. And in Springfield, Peoria and Waukegan, it’s more than 10,000 each.
In Chicago, there’s almost 240,000 kids not at grade level.
Many of those students are black and Hispanic, but it’s not just minorities who are failed by the system. As we showed in the first graphic, more than 470,000 white children statewide can’t read at grade level. That’s fifty-five percent of the state’s 853,000 white public school students.
Surprisingly, many of those students are in the north and west suburbs of Chicago, where some of Illinois’ “best” schools are located. Take Arlington Heights SD 25, Palatine CCSD 15 or Maine Township HSD 207. In those districts, about half of white students aren’t proficient in reading.
And it gets even worse at some school districts downstate. Shockingly, 88 percent of Decatur’s 2,400 white students can’t read at grade level. The district has almost eliminated the white/black reading gap, but obviously in the wrong way.
The politics
The plot to kill the Invest in Kids Act is playing out as we said it would back in May. Then as now, Republicans want to preserve the program as is and Democratic leadership does not. That’s why the program’s reauthorization wasn’t included in the 2024 budget as it should have been.
We predicted the bill would be shoved into the veto session as a stand alone item, where the program would be either maimed by “compromise” or not even come up for a vote, meaning it dies.
That’s precisely what’s happening. The latest “compromise” bill cuts the program size and reduces the incentive for donors to give.* Such changes would inevitably result in the slow death of the program and the bill should be rejected outright.
Nevertheless, such a bill could still pass to give the appearance that school choice has been preserved.
That would suit Gov. Pritzker nicely. As the fate of the Invest in Kids Act has gotten more attention, Pritzker has finally said he’ll sign any proposal that makes it to his desk. It’s his way of placating some of his pro-school-choice constituencies on the left.
But make no mistake, Gov. Pritzker is no supporter. If he was, he’d be pouring political pressure and millions of dollars behind it – like he does with the issues he actually cares about. Like the $50 million-plus he spent to push a progressive tax in Illinois. Or the money he donated to Illinois Supreme Court candidates to protect the court’s Democratic majority. Or the likely tens of millions he’ll spend on his newest initiative, Think Big, a nationwide abortion-rights platform to support ballot initiatives.
That said, the “compromise” bill may not even come up for a vote. The teachers unions want the Invest in Kids Act dead – and are pressuring lawmakers to not even support the compromise. No vote at all means the program sunsets.
That suits Gov. Pritzker even better. He can claim he was for the program but was never given the chance to extend it.
**********
The reality is that the current Invest in Kids Act, while necessary, falls way short of what the 1.2 million-plus children in Illinois who can’t read or do math at grade level need.
They and their parents should expect so much more from lawmakers. Especially when you look at what’s happening nationally. Since we wrote our original commentary in May:
- Oklahoma passed a universal school choice program offering a tax credit up to $7,500 per child.
- Ohio made their voucher program universal, offering up to $8,400 per child.
- And every student in North Carolina is now eligible for an education savings account worth up to $7,500.
That’s in addition to another five states that also passed universal choice programs in 2023.
Those states are showing the way forward. But Illinois is stuck fighting over a tiny program when hundreds of thousands of kids deserve the option of something far better, especially given what’s happening nationally.
*The latest proposal cuts the program’s maximum size to $50 million from $75 million and cuts the annual limit for tax credits to $500,000 from $1 million. It also modifies the tax credit percentage, creating an overall disincentive to donate.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- While Illinois set to kill school choice, North Carolina passes school choice for all
- Covering up Chicago’s literacy problem
- Union boss Stacy Davis-Gates slam dunks the case for school choice in letter to union members
- Systemic failure in Peoria Public Schools. Same as in Decatur or Rockford or Chicago.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Need a good laugh re this school mess? Read the neighbor post from NOW in the Naperville Patch.
Here is the post- Laura Welch, Neighbor Almost 2 million children attend Illinois public schools, 80% are underfunded schools. There is much disinformation about the impact of the Invest in Kids program, yet considering how many tax dollars are diverted from public schools, Invest in Kids must end. Less than 9500 students receive scholarships, approximately .005% of students, this includes students at Naperville area schools. A 75% state tax credit is available to contributors meaning up to $75 million can be diverted per year from schools that educate 2 million students. 95% of the receiving students attend religious schools. This… Read more »
These abortion loving, misinformation spreading freaks always look like this:
https://www.facebook.com/illinoisnow/posts/laura-welch-president-of-illinois-now-at-the-abortionrights-rally-in-chicago-oct/10159470583310535/
Is “performing at grade level” synonymous with “proficient”? If not, which is the higher standard? My local HS is in the top 5% in Illinois, yet only 55% or so of students are “proficient” I expect more of a top 5% school.
If your local presumably superior-to-most school can’t do it as well as we’d all like perhaps it’s something related to better defining the word “proficient”. Several decades ago when I was a grad student I asked a professor who decides what sorts of questions are asked on “standardized tests” or even others where a pre-determined proficiency is expected. His answer was that sort of task was assigned to grad students in the various subject areas as part of their university paid stipend. I have no idea if that’s true now, but if so the testing process is skewed to favor… Read more »
Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply. Maybe Ted, John or Mark can comment on whether grade level and proficient are used interchangeably in the Wirepoints article. The ISBE site doesn’t make it easy to extract this information,
Proficiency is based upon the common core standards. The common core standards lay the specific knowledge a student is supposed to have at each grade level; and the determination whether a student is proficient depends on whether they meet these standards. The test questions specifically address each of these standards. Each standard is given a specific name. So if you answer the test question correct, you meet the standard, if you answer the test question wrong, you don’t meet the standard. And if you answer too many wrong questions that are supposed to be the standard for your grade level,… Read more »
For practical purposes, yes, “read/do math at grade level” is the same as saying “proficient.”
ISBE tells parents that IAR proficiency is defined as “Students performing at levels 4 and 5 “met” or “exceeded” expectations, have demonstrated readiness for the next grade level/course and, ultimately, are likely on track for college and careers.”
And proficiency on the SAT is defined by students scoring in the two top categories: “Meets Standards” and “Exceeds Standards.”
Thank you, John. Can you post a link (or e-mail if you’d rather) that I could share with an adversary who’s convinced all is great in Illinois public education and that vouchers would be harmful?
Maybe the answer lies in the top 5% comparison. Top 5% in the state is simply a comparison to other dismal schools in Illinois. In other words, it is grading on the curve. It just means that all the schools are failing to educate. It doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with the test or the definition of proficient.
I’m cynical, but not that cynical.
Why is that cynical? We already know there is a big disconnect between test scores and graduation rates. We already know there is a big disconnect between classroom grades/class rank, and achievement as measured by SAT and ACT scores. Top 5% ranking, 55% proficient is just another manifestation of the same phenomenon.
I agree that, a 540 on the SAT is too low, a proficiency standard, but i just don’t have the personal experience to say Illinois HSs are miserable. Maybe some other adjective. Lacking, failing…
Years ago the State used to keep a statistic on what percentage of Illinoisans were “functionally illiterate”, which was defined as not able to carry on some basic functions of being an adult, or something like that. I think pols stopped publishing it, but still kept the data, into the Blagojevich years. Then, all of a sudden they stopped mentioning it at all, claiming it had regional and racial implications. It would be interesting to see what percentage of Illinoisans these days are functionally illiterate. I bet it is a much higher number, and partially explains how we keep getting… Read more »
I think everyone is missing the point. This Communist government does not want kids educated! Educated people can ask questions and make thoughtful decisions, while those who cannot read will allow someone else to think for them. Remember in Communism; everyone is equal, some are more equal than others! Also, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king!
Agree- Is the media allowed to ask questions to the politicians that are not vetted or prescreened? People just get the news allowed by those in power. Knowledge is power so limited knowledge works best for the politicians not so much for taxpayers.
Payback is a bitch. Everything the government has done to help these degenerate, illiterates graduate will come back to haunt them.Those people won’t want to work or won’t know how, we are already experiencing it, so the country will either completely fail or they will use you to keep it afloat. Much like you used them to make it fail.
When talking about Illinois government, we tend to throw around terms like “corrupt” or “bloated” or “misguided”. Personally, more and more I think of Illinois government as simply plain “evil”. Evil is able to exist in Illinois government for two reasons. People vote for it, and they pay their taxes to support it. When people vote for evil, we assume they must be either ignorant, stupid, or also evil. We generally assume our neighbors are voting for the evil because they are ignorant. Perhaps it’s time to consider the other 2 possibilities. Ignorance is something that corrects itself over time… Read more »
Yes ToughLove and tomorrow the government schools will continue to do exactly what they’d been doing. Zero incentive to change and more failure ahead.
Another factor in the dominance of IL politics by greedy, self serving Dems is the laziness of the voters. If everyone that truly despises Pritzger, Biden et al got off their duff and voted against them, we would at least stand a fighting chance.
When you look at what IL Democrats and unions have done to hurt lower income and working poor children in this state, there is no vitriol strong enough to condemn them. They are a full blown cult.
I made this comment earlier—-From the CTU web site they are planning a Wednesday-11/8 “CTU – Springfield Lobby Day Veto Session” to bus members to Springfield & back to kill Invest In Kids during a school day on the taxpayers dime.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrbLdSjg3Yn571muXzmEiWzG8DPpBxs0LvlRVKgpHnH3I69g/viewform
It would be to rich for CTU comrade Stacy, maken +$228k on the taxpayers dime, who sending her kid to private school to be at Wednesdays kill Invest In Kids rally in Springfield….but one can dream