Dupage Policy Journal

On June 18, Awake Illinois, a nonprofit dedicated to informing and empowering Illinois residents on matters of education, is hosting an anniversary dinner at Hotel Arista in Naperville, where the National Director of Research for the American Federation for Children, Corey DeAngelis, will speak. 

“Please come to our event as VIP guests. Use code PARENTALRIGHTS at checkout for 2 free tickets each,” said Shannon Adcock, founder and president of Awake Illinois. “I appreciate you sharing our event info with anyone who is for education, school choice, and ideally, who isn't feeling the pain of inflation to their pocketbook. Nonprofits are the first to get passed over when pennies are being pinched!”

DeAngelis recently took to the Adam Corolla Show to discuss his efforts in school choice. 

“Instead of institutions just like we do with so many other taxpayer-funded initiatives already like Pell grants and the G.I. Bill for higher education that funding doesn't go to a residentially assigned government-run school regardless of your choice,” DeAngelis told Carolla. “It goes to an individual student and students can choose a public or private university of their choosing. We do the same thing with pre-k programs where the funding goes to the family and you can choose a public or private provider same thing with food stamps. We don't residentially assign low-income families to government-run grocery stores and tell them that they must use their food stamps at a particular institution you can choose Wal-Mart Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s…and I can keep going on and on with examples but we do this in so many other areas. Why don't we do it with K-12 education too?”

The dinner occurs as the U.S. Supreme Court is projected to allow more opportunities for state funding for private, religious institutions.

If Illinois were to open up more funding for parochial editions it could be a boon for Catholic schools which suffered enrollment declines of nearly 11 percent of their students during the pandemic, Chicago Tribune reported.

Many parents across Illinois began to raise questions about public school education during the pandemic after Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion standards involving, heavily — and what many considered inappropriate — race-related messaging was introduced in the school curriculum.

“Millions of disadvantaged schoolchildren are consigned to academic mediocrity, emotional abuse and physical threat in the name of restorative justice.” Daniel Buck, an English teacher and education policy writer, said in a RAND assessment of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion standards, West Cook News reported.