Illinois state Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) | senatorcurran.com
Illinois state Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) | senatorcurran.com
Illinois Senate Minority leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) has vowed to continue to work toward saving the Invest In Kids tax scholarship program after Gov. JB Pritzker said it had been stripped from the state’s pending budget.
Curran praised those who made the trek to the Capitol to show support for the program.
“I want to thank the hundreds of children, teachers, families, and mentors who have been coming to the Illinois State Capitol this year to advocate for the Invest In Kids Scholarship Program,” he said in a Facebook post this week. “We have heard you loud and clear and saving this program remains a top priority of the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus in the closing days of session.”
The Tax Credit Scholarship Program provides donors a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. The program serves more than 9,000 K-12 students who are the beneficiaries of the Invest in Kids Tax Credit.
“This is not something that’s been covered by the budget agreement,” Pritzker said at a press conference, quoted by the Prairie State Wire. “It’s something that still has time, potentially, but it’s not something that’s in the budget agreement.”
GOP General Assembly members united together before the May 19 budget deadline to defend Invest in Kids.
“We the undersigned members of the Illinois General Assembly are expressing our support of the extension of the ‘Invest in Kids’ Scholarship Fund,” the legislators said in a May 19 letter. “This is a shared priority of both caucuses which benefits the education of underprivileged children.”
One of Invest in Kids’ main opponents is the Illinois Education Association (IEA), which has placed ads on Facebook seeking to have funding removed from the school choice program.
“More white students are helped (by Invest in Kids) than any other,” the IEA said on its website, quoted by the State Wire. “Of the 9,348 scholarships received, 1,365 went to (blacks), 2,280 to hispanic students and 4,392 went to (whites)."
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