|
American Federation for Children Senior Fellow Patrick Graff
said the scholarships would take no money from the public school
system.
“If just 15% of taxpayers in Illinois donated for the Education
Freedom Tax Credit, that would be over $1 billion in new
education funding for students in Illinois,” Graff told Greg
Bishop on The States.
The initiative provides individual tax credits up to $1,700 for
donations to eligible scholarship-granting organizations.
Graff said people in states that opt out could still receive a
tax credit by donating to organizations in states that opt in.
So far, 31 states have chosen to join the program, four states
opted out, and governors in Wisconsin and Arizona vetoed their
states’ legislative efforts to opt in.
Graff said, unlike Illinois’ Invest in Kids tax credit that
expired in 2023, the federal program has no impact on the state
budget.
“There is no funding disappearing from the public school system
as a result of that choice. This is all federal tax-credited
dollars that are going to be flowing into scholarship
organizations,” Graff said.
Graff said the scholarships are open to public, private,
charter, magnet and some homeschool students.
“Over time, just because the vast majority of kids in the
country go to public schools, the major beneficiary of this new
tax credit will be public school students,” Graff said.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers
Union called on Pritzker to reject the scholarship program.
Last month, the Illinois Education Association endorsed Pritzker
for reelection.
“He’s helped increase the number of Illinois students eligible
for federal tuition aid, and he ended Illinois voucher
programs,” IEA President Karl Goeke said.
The Invest in Kids scholarship tax credit program expired on
Dec. 31, 2023. The state program allowed Illinois residents and
businesses to receive a tax credit worth 75% of their
contributions for low-income students to attend qualified
private and technical schools.
Greg Bishop contributed to this story
|
|
