Amid all of the partisan wrangling that characterizes lawmaking in Springfield, there are examples of bipartisan teamwork that yield resounding successes.
The Invest in Kids scholarship program is one of them. The program’s worth is undeniable.
Enacted in 2017, the initiative gives low-income and working-class parents who cannot otherwise afford to send their children to private and parochial schools the means to do so. The program is funded by donors who get a state tax credit of 75 cents on every dollar donated to the scholarship fund.
Since its passage, the program has awarded more than 40,000 scholarships amounting to more than $330 million, according to Empower Illinois, one of the largest scholarship-granting organizations associated with Invest in Kids. Families helped by the effort have an average of $45,046 in yearly household income. More than 60% of recipients are from nonwhite families.
Many of the children benefiting from the program had been attending ineffective, underperforming public schools until they got a chance at an alternative. As a result, demand for the program is sky-high; only 22% of families applying were able to secure a scholarship.
So why does Invest in Kids once again find itself facing extinction?
The program was enacted as a pilot effort. It received an extension in 2021 but is at risk of expiring in December if lawmakers don’t renew it.
Even an extension wouldn’t be enough, we believe. Springfield should make Invest in Kids permanent.
The program’s benefit reaches far beyond participating families. When kids in long-neglected neighborhoods get access to a strong, well-rounded education, those neighborhoods are better off, as is Chicago as a whole.
It Takes A Village Family of Schools, which serves mostly Black and Latino children on the Near West and South sides, participates in Invest in Kids. Its co-founder, Anita Andrews-Hutchinson, wrote in a Tribune op-ed on April 17 that the initiative isn’t “just an investment in education; it’s also an investment in violence prevention, poverty reduction and economic acceleration.” In the last three years, the program has allowed Andrews-Hutchinson’s schools to award 88 scholarships worth more than $1 million to students and their families.
Predictably, the powerful Chicago Teachers Union sees Invest in Kids as anathema to improving education, not to mention its own interests, and wants to see the program’s demise. When Invest in Kids was enacted in 2017, CTU called it “a ticking time bomb of a voucher scheme.” In 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker labeled Invest in Kids a “corporate loophole” and proposed to gut it by slashing the tax credit from 75 cents on the donated dollar to 40 cents.
The governor didn’t get very far. Though Pritzker’s fellow Democrats control Springfield, the General Assembly left the tax credit alone. They went further — extending the program through December 2023 and expanding it to include scholarships to career and technical academies.
That’s not enough, however. State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle must realize the importance of making Invest in Kids a permanent fixture in Illinois’ education landscape.
Shutting down Invest in Kids would force an unacceptable level of uncertainty on parents and their children, who would have their academic journeys upended and their futures suddenly jeopardized. Schools that participate in the scholarship program would see their enrollments drop. Conversely, local school districts would have to absorb the thousands of students who benefited from the program.
We have pointed out in the past that the cost of that absorption would exceed the costs to the public till generated by the tax credits.
For so long, Invest in Kids has been one of the General Assembly’s prized initiatives. Its demise would constitute one of Springfield’s biggest legislative blunders. As Empower Illinois President Anthony Holter told us, Invest in Kids had to pass muster during its five-year pilot phase. It’s clear it exceeded expectations.
“You do a pilot program to see if something works,” Holter said. “And we know it works for the families it’s designed to help.”
Precisely. And don’t get us started on the hypocrisy of those who choose to send their kids to private or parochial schools and yet don’t support a similar option for families with the income level that’s typical of participants in Invest in Kids.
The state legislature wraps up its spring session May 19. That leaves lawmakers with precious little time to act. Springfield should prevent the program’s expiration, and that rescue should entail making the pilot effort permanent. Invest in Kids is all about giving every child in Illinois a chance at an effective, enriching education — not just kids from families with deep pockets.
Springfield, the clock is ticking. Ensure that Invest in Kids remains a legislative success story.
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