By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
In what should create envy in many Illinois parents – especially those with children trapped in schools where not a single student can read at grade level – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed on Saturday the nation’s largest day-one school choice program into law.
All 6 million Texan school children will be eligible to apply for an Education Savings Account (ESA) that provides students with $10,800 a year for school tuition, tutoring, extracurricular activities, transportation, and special needs therapy.
Texas’ passage of school choice should also be a major embarrassment for those Illinois lawmakers, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who allowed Illinois’ small school choice program – called Invest in Kids – to sunset at the end of 2023. They killed the program, depriving thousands of students of a better education.
Today, 1.1 million Illinois students can’t read at grade level in Illinois, according to the Illinois State Board of Education*, making the need for school choice urgent across the state.
32 states now have some form of school choice across the country, and 15 have universal programs, meaning all children regardless of race or income can access a voucher or education savings account.
The passage of the Texas program is historic. For the first time, more than half of American schoolchildren now have access to some form of school choice program.
Here are some more of the details of the Texas program as reported by the American Federation for Children:
- All six million Texas K-12 students will be eligible to apply.
- ESAs will be funded at more than $10,000 per student.
- ESA funds will cover a variety of educational expenses including tuition at a non-public school, tutoring, extracurricular activities, transportation, special needs therapies, and more.
- Students with disabilities and students from low- or middle-income families will be first in line if demand exceeds available funding.
- Participating schools and families will remain protected from burdensome regulations affecting curriculum, admissions, and other matters.
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At Wirepoints, we’ve proved time and again that the educational system has destroyed literacy and numeracy across Illinois, in particular for minorities. Look at the map below. It’s an absolute indictment of Illinois’ education leaders and the system they’ve created.
Going forward, Illinois voters’ litmus test must be whether their lawmakers support school choice.
If they oppose it, give them the boot.
*Illinois State Board of Education data shows that only 39% of Illinois’ 1.85 million students are proficient in English Language Arts tests (41% proficient on the IAR, just 31% proficient on the SAT). That means 1.1 million Illinois students aren’t reading at grade level.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Wirepoints’ education articles
- Homeschooling and the hypocrisy of Illinois politicians
- One big reason your Illinois property taxes are so high. And why you should get a big refund.
- Pritzker and Johnson’s obsession with a racialized, sexualized, politicized school curriculum
- Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
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.
Just watching Banjo and his spiel everytime the cameras on would give me pause registering my kid in public school
Look at that school choice map Pritzker – by extending the meager Invest in Kids Act in IL, you could have scored significant political points. Instead you chose to blindly do what the teacher union Bosses wanted. Pritzker doesn’t have a chance of being President, ever.
It’s not just Pritzker, it’s Harmon, Emmanuel and all the usual suspects in Springfield (D-CTU).
Perhaps president of the “non weight watchers” club of America
News Flash he never had a chance he is on the wrong side of everything!