Lawmakers decline to extend private school scholarship tax credit
program
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[November 10, 2023] By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers adjourned their fall veto session
Thursday afternoon without renewing a controversial program that
provided indirect state support for students attending private and
religious schools.
The Invest in Kids program will sunset as scheduled on Dec. 31, meaning
donors to six state-approved private school scholarship funds will no
longer be able to claim a 75 percent tax credit for their donations. The
program has been capped at $75 million annually since its implementation
in 2018.
Advocates for the program say without the tax incentives, the
scholarship organizations won’t be able to raise the money they have in
recent years, and an estimated 9,600 students who currently receive
those scholarships may have to find another way to pay for their
education or transfer to their local public school.
Lawmakers passed the Invest in Kids Act in 2017 as part of a bipartisan
package that also included an overhaul of the way Illinois funds public
preK-12 education. The scholarship program was considered necessary in
order to get then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, to sign the public
school funding overhaul.
Supporters of the program argued that it gave children from lower-income
backgrounds the ability to attend schools that would otherwise be
available only to wealthier families. But opponents, including teachers’
unions and other advocates for public education, argued that the tax
credits siphoned money out of state coffers that could have been used to
support public schools.
Last month, state Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, D-Chicago, introduced
House Bill 4194, which would have renewed a scaled-back version of the
program. But that bill was never called for a vote.
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Supporters of the Invest in Kids scholarship program for private
schools rally outside the Illinois House of Representatives chamber
on Tuesday. Lawmakers adjourned their fall veto session Thursday
without voting to renew the program, meaning it will expire on Dec.
31. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
One question that remained unanswered about the program is whether
students who received private school scholarships performed any
better academically than their peers who went to public schools.
The 2017 law required students receiving the scholarships to take
the same standardized tests that public school students take each
year, and it called on the Illinois State Board of Education to
publish an analysis of that data.
But ISBE has not yet published that analysis. Officials at the
agency said they were unable to collect reliable data during the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. An analysis using 2022 and 2023
test results is scheduled for release later this year or early in
2024.
Throughout the veto session, dozens of supporters of the program
converged on the Statehouse wearing blue t-shirts and waving signs
that read, “Protect our scholarships.”
House Republican leader Tony McCombie, of Savanna, told reporters
Thursday that she believes the program still has bipartisan support,
and she said its backers will continue working to have it
reinstated.
“It certainly will continue to be a priority of the caucus, and it
certainly will be a priority of several of the Democrats in the
House as well as, I believe, in the Senate,” she said. “I don't
think it's going to be something that they're going to want to just
stop.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is
distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations
statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation
and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major
contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern
Illinois Editorial Association. |