LWVIL opposed the creation of the voucher tax credit scholarship program know as "Invest in Kids" when  it was enacted in 2017 as part of a compromise to pass the Evidence Based Funding formula. This program is supposed to sunset after 5 years. The groups who reap millions from the program, including the scholarship-granting orgs that take 5% off the top, are lobbying in Springfield in the past week, during the veto session, to make the program permanent.  

 

Please call your legislators today to oppose any extension of the vouchers, and to urge that the program be allowed to sunset.  This program is bad public policy for many reasons:  

 

--separation of church and state--95% of the vouchers go to religious schools

--right of disabled students to an appropriate education does not have to be respected in these private schools

--right of LGBTQ youth to an education without discrimination is undermined in the published handbooks of many of these schools

- transparency and accountability in spending public dollars is lacking

--public schools are  under-funded and need the $75 million of taxpayer dollars that the voucher program diverts to private, religious schools of the taxpayer's choice

--schools receiving vouchers don’t have to comply with the full Illinois School Code, including curriculum requirements designed to educate well-rounded citizens of a multicultural, multiracialdemocracy. 

 

Please contact your state senator and state rep this week.

Rep. Seth Lewis: (217) 782-4014, (630) 349-0645, lewis [at] ilhousegop.org

Sen. Diane Pappas: (217) 782-9463, (224) 353-6130, contactsenatorpappas [at] gmail.com