By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Universal school choice has expanded rapidly across the nation in 2023, adopted by states like Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and now North Carolina. Universal choice means that every single child – no matter race, income or disability – can access public funds to attend the school that best fits their needs.
North Carolina became the nation’s 10th state to go universal last Friday. Every student in the state is now eligible for an education savings account worth $3,200 to $7,500, depending on family income. That will make North Carolina’s choice program the 2nd-biggest in the nation, behind only Florida’s universal savings account program.
Contrast that to Illinois, where lawmakers are going to the opposite extreme. They’re about to kill the state’s only school choice program, a tiny program that grants just 9,000 students opportunity scholarships. We’ve documented how Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his Democratic supermajorities’ plan to eliminate the Invest in Kids Act during the coming veto session.
It’s shameful that for Illinois lawmakers “universal” means “no choice for any child.”
2023 is quickly cementing a reputation as “the year of school choice” as 18 states have passed bills establishing school choice programs or expanding existing ones.
Eight states have passed some kind of universal or virtually-universal school choice program so far this year: Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Utah.
Another ten states have expanded their choice programs in some way: Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Fighting for universal choice
The hypocrisy of killing the Invest in Kids Act is becoming more obvious by the day as we learn more about Illinois leaders sending their own children to private schools. It was just discovered CTU President Stacy Davis-Gates sends her son to the De La Salle Institute even though she calls private schools “segregation academies” and school choice “racist.”
We also just found out that Sean Denney, the head of Government Relations at the Illinois Education Association, sends his children to a private school in Springfield, Illinois.
That’s on top of Gov. Pritzker sending his children to elite private schools Francis W. Parker School and the Latin School of Chicago; Senate Pres. Don Harmon sending his children to St. Giles Catholic School and St. Ignatius College Prep; and House Speaker Welch sending his kids to Timothy Christian School.
The fight for school choice in Illinois can no longer be about a tiny, token program. The only real solution is universal choice.
Open it up to every single kid in Illinois – just like they do in Indiana, Iowa and now in North Carolina.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Covering up Chicago’s literacy problem
- How the plot to end Illinois’ school choice program is playing out
- Educational freedom for Illinois children could look like this: Iowa’s Students First Act
- Here’s another option for educational freedom: Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program
- How the plot to end Illinois’ school choice program is playing out
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Who are the three men in the photo. I recognize the Gov. What might they be sharing a drink over?
Remember, the ask was for only 1% of the state’s K-12 budget for a scholarship fund. A rounding error in a $50 billion state budget.
Illinois is immensely proud of their uneducated students. Maybe these students should all join a union and fight for their right to be and remain ignorant. Illinois has a plan for these students. They are instrumental in making and keeping Illinois a poor state full of people not allowed to be involved in governing but better suited to be dictated to. If they don’t know their rights they won’t have any. School choice would make them think. Illinois wants to think for them.
Nothing like the perpetuation of slavery! It’s just awful!!
I don’t think anybody is proud of uneducated students. I think the CTU looks the other way and there are definitely some insensitive sociopaths in CTU management and state positions.
School choice vs No choice put another way is Freedom vs Forced. Isn’t it interesting that the black population of Chicago consistently chooses Forced, which isn’t far off from slavery.
I’ll never understand the liberal mind.
The contrast between even the most mediocre Red State and Illinois is as big as the Grand Canyon. It is a shame, but the Marxists are in complete control of IL. People who stay here have resolved themselves to just ‘take it’.
No, I’m fighting back. Instead of spamming the chat with divisive comments, you should fight back too.
The ideological gap between ultra-blue states and red continues to grow, therefore migration from red to blue will continue. Possibly the worst long-term investment anyone can make is real estate in a blue state. The fastest way to end up “trapped” in a blue state is to invest in a blue state. For those of you that think Illinois is really a purple state going thru a temporary red phase, you are simply wrong about that. Chicago dominates the state and for years now it has been churning out poorly educated, ultra-liberal residents that will not consider voting for anything… Read more »
Democrats are largely a cult now – don’t bother them with facts, data, trends or history. It’s all about their ideology and grift. Look no further than the teachers union and state unions.
So true! Whatever used to be here is now ramped up
to the nth degree. smh
First off, I will say ditto, TOUGH LOVE! Loved your comment — and the length was necessary to include what you so appropriately covered. I’m happy for, and commend, those of you who have exited this cesspool/hellhole. As Shaun Thomson over @ am560 The Answer — who has begun his family’s exit (to Florida) — calls it, I’m still here for “reasons of love and affection”. My family members have their own attachments/ commitments, ie, jobs, etc… here for now— and are not yet convinced that they should leave. I recently traveled to Arkansas to explore and start my research… Read more »
Best of luck with your research Cathy. I have a few suggestions. Start by eliminating states with an income tax. Consider real estate taxes and sales tax. Next look deeper into the states debt burden and whether it also might have a looming pension crisis. (I ruled out Kentucky because of this consideration.) Look at how the state voted in recent elections. Did it vote for Biden or Trump? The past is a good predictor of the future. Of course, give climate some consideration as well. After considering everything, I ended up in Tennessee, but that may not be the… Read more »
Gee, will Illinois Dems ever embrace pro choice for education like they have for butchering babies?
Competition makes libs nervous. They may have to actually do something to draw that paycheck they’ve grown accustomed to for little or no effort.
Freedom of choice–pure sign of democracy
It’s still a “voucher” not an ESA
22 states now have laws enshrining school choice
https://www.federationforchildren.org/21-soon-22-school-choice-states/
Thumbs down from someone that can’t accept the fact that 22 states have more common sense then ze/ zer/ zits beloved swamp of progressive communism, IL.