Illinois Families for Public Schools, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the League of Women Voters of Illinois held a virtual forum on Tuesday April 25, 2023, "What You Need to Know about Invest in Kids: Illinois’ Tax Credit Voucher Program."

If you missed this event or want to share with others, here’s a link to the recording:

You’ll find the slides here from Professor Josh Cowen, looking at the research on student achievement for students who use vouchers, and here from Cassie Creswell, with details on the Invest in Kids program’s issues with oversight and discrimination. See also the new policy brief, "Illinois Lawmakers: Let the State’s Private School Voucher Law Sunset," co-authored by panelist Jessica Levin of Public Funds Public Schools.  

More links from the forum:

• TIME How School Voucher Programs Hurt Students by Josh Cowen
• Indiana Coalition for Public Education
• Network for Public Education
• Blog - Vic's Statehouse Notes

Voucher plans are sweeping the country, transferring public funds to private schools. Many Illinois residents don't realize we have a voucher program right here in the form of a tax credit "scholarship" program, known as Invest in Kids.

Our expert panel looks at this national trend, examines the research on student achievement in voucher schools, gives a glimpse of the impact of vouchers on students in our neighboring state of Indiana, and presents important information about Invest in Kids. Learn how you can join the campaign endorsed by more than 50 local, state and national organizations to end the program permanently!

Jessica Levin, is the Acting Litigation Director at the Education Law Center and the Director of Public Funds Public Schools. She will discuss the dramatic increase in voucher program throughout the country, a massive transfer of public funds to private and religious schools.

Dr. Josh Cowen, Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University, is a nationally recognized researcher on vouchers. He will share his research on the impact of voucher programs on student achievement.

Dountonia S. Batts, a community advocate and a board member of Network for Public Education Action. As a parent, she will share her first-hand experience about the negative/destructive impact of vouchers on students and schools in Indiana.

Cassie Creswell, the director of Illinois Families for Public Schools and a Chicago Public Schools parent, has long experience as an advocate for public schools. She will provide detailed information about the problems with Invest in Kids. You will come away armed with facts and arguments about our voucher program to share with your state legislators.

Thank you to all our co-sponsors:

Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, BG Pride, AAUW Naperville Area

On Wednesday night, IL-FPS broke the news that Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education under former (and now indicted) President Trump, was spending thousands in the mayoral race in support of Paul Vallas. 

CHICAGO — Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas is falsely denying his connections to former President Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and an Illinois Super PAC that DeVos funds.

[full press release after the jump]

CHICAGO — Last week ex-President Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made a $59,000 independent expenditure in support of mayoral candidate Paul Vallas’ campaign from a Super PAC she funds, the Illinois Federation for Children PAC.

The Illinois Federation for Children PAC was established in March 2022 and has received $465,000 in total from DeVos’ American Federation for Children Action Fund, a national 527 PAC. The Illinois Federation PAC’s chair, Nathan Hoffman, was a registered contract lobbyist in Springfield for the American Federation for Children until January this year.

[full press release after the jump]

CHICAGO — La semana pasada, la ex secretaria de Educación del ex presidente Trump, Betsy DeVos, realizó un gasto independiente de $59.000 dólares en apoyo de la campaña del candidato a la alcaldía Paul Vallas de un Súper PAC que financia, la Federación de Illinois para Niños PAC.

El PAC de la Federación de Illinois para Niños se estableció en marzo de 2022 y ha recibido $465.000 en total del Fondo de Acción de la Federación Americana para Niños de DeVos, un PAC nacional 527 financiada por Devos y su esposo. El presidente del PAC de la Federación de Illinois, Nathan Hoffman, fue un lobbista contratado registrado en Springfield para la Federación Americana de Niños hasta enero de este año.

[comunicado de prensa completo después del salto]

Update: This bill was not heard on March 28th, and no vote was taken. It has a deadline extension through the end of spring session. We'll be keeping an eye on it.

Illinois Families for Public Schools is in Springfield today talking to legislators about our legislative agenda, including urging them to ensure that the existing Invest in Kids voucher program ends. Unfortunately, a bill to create an even larger, less regulated voucher scheme is in hearing this afternoon, HB 1573, the Education Savings Account Act. 

School board races are being flooded with dark money

Tuesday April 4th is voting day for local elections—including school boards—throughout Illinois. That’s when Chicago holds its municipal run-offs for mayor and many city council seats. And, outside of Chicago, in addition to school boards, library boards and village boards (or city council) elections take place on April 4th as well. 

More than 50 local, state and national organizations are calling for the Illinois General Assembly to ensure Illinois’ Invest in Kids voucher program ends as intended after the coming school year. Full press release below.

Gov. Pritzker gave his budget address on Wednesday, and it was heartening to hear him call out attacks on school boards and libraries, including book bans and 'Don't Say Gay' laws, and say unequivocally that here in Illinois we want our children to learn the truth about our history as a country, “warts and all.”

The push to dismantle public education via voucher schemes that start small and then metastasize to drain public coffers isn’t just a battle happening in Illinois. It’s nationwide, and it’s accelerating. Below we look at how vouchers are growing in neighboring states.

Wisconsin and Indiana have long been cautionary privatization tales. Wisconsin’s voucher program ballooned from $700K in 1991 to $444M this school year. Indiana’s program started in 2011, and initially budget figures claimed a savings of $4M from the program, but by last year the annual cost was up to $241M. Academic achievement results from Indiana’s voucher program have been dismal. Wisconsin’s program hasn’t had a long-term study for more than a decade, but the most recent study (2010) showed no achievement benefits for voucher students. (See discussion here.)

In Iowa the Republican governor’s plan for creating a massive Education Savings Account program may finally have the votes to succeed after she helped bump off the remaining opponents to it in her own party, rural Republicans, during last year’s primary election. But the battle is a noisy one in their state capitol nonetheless with robust opposition from Democrats in both chambers, and last year’s fight appeared to push public opinion there further against vouchers. 

Iowa Capital Dispatch Few Iowa families will have more choices with GOP 'school choice' plan

Little Village ‘Our public schools are not failing, elected officials are failing them’: Iowans opposing voucher bill flood legislature with comments

[Update: Iowa's voucher bill did pass. It is projected to grow from $107M this year to $341M in its fourth year.]

In Missouri lawmakers are already talking about expanding their brand new voucher program, also set up like IL’s as a tax-credit scholarship mechanism, a design choice that deliberately tries to circumvent the separation of church and state with voucher fund middlemen as the conduit for distributing tax dollars to private schools.

A rare bright spot is Kentucky, where their tax credit scholarship program was ruled unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court last month.

Louisville Public Media Ky. Supreme Court rules school tax credit program unconstitutional

Public Funds Public Schools Kentucky Remains Voucher-Free as Supreme Court Strikes Down Unconstitutional Law

The unanimous ruling makes it clear that the program raises public funds which are diverted to private schools: “[T]he income tax credit raises money for nonpublic education and its characterization as a tax credit rather than an appropriation is immaterial.“ And, since Kentucky’s constitution prohibits spending funds raised for education for anything other than public schools unless it is approved by voters, the program was ruled unconstitutional. 

Michigan is another positive piece of news. It's the home state of Betsy DeVos, and she and her family had been dumping millions into a push for a massive tax credit scholarship program there. But with the control of the Michigan legislature switching from Republican to Democratic in November and a likely defeat at the polls due to the unpopularity of voucher programs, DeVos-funded groups withdrew their attempt to get a ballot initiative approved that would have created the voucher program without the need for approval from the Governor.

Detroit News Conservative groups abandon ballot bids for private school scholarship, voting laws

Chalkbeat Detroit DeVos-funded campaign for school voucher-like plan withdraws petitions in a sign of defeat

What to make of all this from our near neighbors? One, it is imperative that Illinois’ program ends as intended! Even small-ish programs can grow huge quickly. The fight here currently is to make Invest in Kids permanent. If pro-voucher groups succeed, they will then simply return to Springfield with their busloads of voucher students to push to make the program bigger. Bills trying to do both have previously been introduced in Springfield with support from both sides of the aisle (e.g. see expansion bills here and here and bill to make permanent here.) 

Two, those of us who are pro-public schools may not have billionaires bankrolling us, but we do have the facts and popular opinion on our side. Once people know about this program, they are very alarmed. As the Kentucky court case made clear, this program is taking tax revenue that should be appropriated for the public good and redirecting it for private purposes. Moreover, it is funding mostly religious institutions, and many of these schools, possibly most, engage in discrimination. (Only 15% of Invest in Kids voucher schools report serving any special education students!) 

Meanwhile, our public schools, which must serve all kids, are still short by billions of dollars of state funding. Voucher programs aren’t good public policy, and this is a fight worth having.