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Protect Illinois Public Schools: January 2025 Action

Jane Jerrard

Updated: 7 days ago

Last fall, pro-public school advocates successfully pushed the Illinois General Assembly to sunset the state’s school voucher program (aka “Invest in Kids”). A broad coalition of more than 60 local, state and national orgs made this victory possible. Rather than devoting tens of millions of dollars a year to private schools that discriminate, those dollars now go back to the state’s General Revenue Fund to support the public good—including funding our public schools.


But now that hard-won victory could be rolled back at the federal level…


Congress is considering the Educational Choice for Children Act, which would create a $5 billion national school voucher program, far bigger and with even less oversight than the program we just ended here in Illinois.


If this legislation passes, it will be a major catalyst to erode public education in every state in the US. As state-run voucher programs have spread around the country, they've devoured public ed budgets as they balloon in size (and in the case of Arizona, resulted in a massive state budget shortfall.)


You can read the bill language here, HR 9462, and a fact sheet from the National Coalition for Public Education here. Ed writer Peter Greene had a good, detailed look at what’s in the legislation in Forbes magazine in December 2024.


What can we do?


We need to make sure Congress is hearing from constituents (you!) that public dollars are for public schools, and NOT for federal voucher schemes. The majority of public school students in Illinois are in districts that need more funding, not less. Federal funding for schools is far from where it should be even under federal law.



Please call your US representative and US Senators this week:


Representative Jan Schakowsky: (202) 225-2111


Representative Bradley Schneider (202) 225-4835


Senator Dick Durbin: (202) 224-2152


Senator Tammy Duckworth: (202) 224-2854



Here's a sample script you can use:



“I’m a constituent, and I’m very concerned about the possibility of a federal voucher program for K-12. The IL General Assembly just ended the state voucher program; we can’t let school vouchers come back to Illinois via the federal government! Illinois’ public schools are still underfunded. I urge you to oppose and vote no on Educational Choice for Children Act. Public dollars are for public schools."



This voucher legislation could be part of a tax package reconciliation bill (which only requires a simple majority in each chamber) up for passage as soon as some time in January. Although Republicans will now be controlling both the US House and the US Senate, the margin in the House is extremely narrow. Stopping this bill is possible, but it will require the opposition of every Democrat and a handful of Republicans, as well.



While this bill is a Republican initiative, here in Illinois, the creation of our voucher program had bipartisan support, and ending it, even with a Democratic trifecta in our statehouse, was a tough slog. Calls are important to both Democrats and Republicans on this!

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