Latest news with #InvestinKidsAct
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Commentary: School choice does not equal education freedom. It drains public resources
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at expanding school choice. The order directs federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education, to issue guidance on how states can use federal funds to expand 'educational choice' initiatives and encourage 'education freedom.' This order was signed alongside another to 'end radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling,' which seeks to end funding for schools that support and include honest and critical conversations around race, gender and sexuality in their curricula. Both of these orders are a fear tactic designed to create distrust in our public schools. In reality, expansion of school choice programs deepens inequities and drains resources from public schools, and censoring curricula restricts students' right to learn. Additionally, cases such as Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board v. Drummond, which will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court this spring, present existential challenges to secular public education as we currently know it. This matter concerns what could be the country's first religious charter school, which would not only open opportunities for school choice expansion, but also threaten to erode religious freedom and the line between church and state in our institutions. The Trump administration will claim that these orders are a win for parent choice. Every parent wants the best education for their child. And every child, no matter where they live, deserves a high-quality education. Parents should be involved in their students' education, but instead of creating avenues for families to leave public schools, we should focus on bettering our current options. The solution isn't to use public tax dollars to fund privatized institutions that serve only the select few. The solution is to fully fund our neighborhood public schools so that all children can benefit. School choice is a distraction. It shifts the focus — and the funds — away from collective responsibility for providing excellent educational opportunities for all toward a competition for individual gain. Not only does school choice undermine the principle of public education as a public good, but it also increases the divide between students who have access and those who don't. State funding for education and other critical spending priorities all comes from the same pot — more money for private schools and charters means less for rural and low-income schools. School choice doesn't create more options if it only does so by divesting from neighborhood public schools. The math doesn't add up. Illinois has rejected school choice legislation before — because it doesn't work. The 2017 Invest in Kids Act, which privately funded scholarships for 15,000 students, ended in 2023. While school choice supporters in Illinois often highlight the loss of scholarships when this bill ended, they fail to mention the 1.85 million students in Illinois public schools who were shortchanged by the legislation. Programs such as Invest in Kids siphon state resources away from neighborhood public schools, forcing those schools to compete for limited resources, leading to larger class sizes, fewer extracurriculars and reduced support services, while private schools benefit. Federal voucher support threatens to incentivize states to adopt similar inequitable funding models that harm public education nationwide. Instead of creating pathways that lead families to compete for more inequitable schooling options, legislators at the federal and state levels should focus on bettering the schools that students already attend. In Illinois, the evidence-based funding formula (EBF) was created to direct additional resources to the schools and districts that need them most. This formula is currently underfunded by $5 billion. Illinois cannot afford to take any more money away from public schools. Fully funding EBF will do far more to close the opportunity gap than any tax credit program ever could. Proponents of school choice often claim that school choice programs empower low-income families. Half of current public school students in Illinois are low-income, and 54.7% are students of color. All students in public schools are harmed by underfunding, but marginalized communities will be hurt most by an expansion of school choice. The ethical and fiscally responsible choice for legislators who want to empower low-income families is to support increased funding for public education. One thing both sides can agree on is that the current system doesn't work for everyone, but the solution — especially in this unprecedented time of uncertainty in federal funding sources due to sharply shifting education policy — is not to move toward school choice models or to cut federal funding from public schools for teaching truthful history. We need to fully fund public schools so every child has access to a high-quality education, no matter their ZIP code. Congress and states should reject this federal legislation and focus on reforms that uplift all communities, especially communities of color that have been historically underserved. The futures of public education and Illinois' students depend on it. ____ Maddy Wheelock, a former public school teacher, is coalition coordinator for the Partnership for Equity and Education Rights Illinois. ____
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: The joy of reading and the Illinois crisis stealing it away
Literacy is a gift we give our children. It's reading a poem by, say, Joseph Bruchac and understanding not just the words, but the emotions behind them: 'The old man must have stopped our car two dozen times to climb out and gather into his hands the small toads blinded by our lights and leaping, live drops of rain.' The full poem, titled 'The Old Man,' is part of a real fourth-grade reading assignment on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a standardized test measuring student performance across the country. Students are asked to examine how the speaker and the old man feel about the toads and explain the difference using evidence from the poem. This is one way the test assesses whether a child is proficient in reading. The unfortunate truth? Too many Illinois students are not. In 2024, just 30% of fourth graders across Illinois were proficient in reading, according to the Nation's Report Card. In 2019, 34% of Illinois fourth graders were proficient in reading. That's a significant decline and a clear sign that our current approach is failing. A proficient fourth grader can read a poem or story and describe how characters influence one another. They can make inferences from what they read. By contrast, a student who isn't proficient can't do either of those things and may only be able to determine the meaning of familiar words. Every child who leaves school without the gift of literacy carries a burden — one that gets heavier as they get older. Without strong reading skills, school becomes frustrating. Learning turns into an experience of failure rather than discovery. Students lose confidence, disengage and fall further behind. Many eventually drop out, face job insecurity or even enter the criminal justice system. This literacy crisis affects children across the state — from East St. Louis to Springfield to the Chicago suburbs. The pandemic accelerated the decline, but our educational shortcomings were evident long before that. The question is: What are we going to do about it? State lawmakers had a chance to help low-income students by renewing the Invest in Kids Act, a scholarship program that helped children attend private schools that better fit their needs. But in 2024, Illinois legislators let it expire, stripping thousands of students of educational options. Now, a new opportunity has emerged. Republicans in Congress have introduced the Educational Choice for Children Act, a federal program that would provide tax-credit scholarships for K-12 students nationwide. Like Invest in Kids, this initiative would offer families a lifeline if their public school isn't meeting their child's needs. Of course, Chicago Teachers Union leadership will oppose this — but the reality is that school choice remains popular in Illinois, with a majority of residents supporting the concept. More importantly, choice introduces accountability into a system that, for decades, has faced little real competition. Martin West, academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, sees a troubling trend in national test scores. NAEP data from the mid-1990s through 2010 showed progress in reading and math, particularly among low-income students. What changed? 'That was a period where there was more consistent emphasis on standards-based reform and holding schools accountable,' West told us. 'Most observers would agree that there's been a softening of accountability since then.' He's right. Schools, like any institution, need incentives to improve. Right now, there are no consequences when a school fails to prepare the majority of its students to read and do math at grade level. But when families have the option to leave, schools have to find a way to improve outcomes or risk losing students. That's what educational choice provides: a system that rewards excellence, rather than perpetuating failure. To be clear, though, we just as strongly support excellence in Illinois public schools and think every kid should have access to top-tier reading instruction. But the Nation's Report Card is clear: Illinois students are struggling. They need options. They need accountability. And they need a system that prioritizes their futures, not the politics of the adults in charge. If we continue down this path, we will continue robbing children of their potential. Literacy should not be a privilege — it should be a guarantee for all of Illinois' young people. And we have a shared responsibility to make sure every child receives that gift. Sign up for the Opinion newsletter: Get the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Chicago Tribune's opinion team sent to your inbox each weekday.
Chicago Tribune
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: The joy of reading and the Illinois crisis stealing it away
Literacy is a gift we give our children. It's reading a poem by, say, Joseph Bruchac and understanding not just the words, but the emotions behind them: 'The old man must have stopped our car two dozen times to climb out and gather into his hands the small toads blinded by our lights and leaping, live drops of rain.' The full poem, titled 'The Old Man,' is part of a real fourth-grade reading assignment on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a standardized test measuring student performance across the country. Students are asked to examine how the speaker and the old man feel about the toads and explain the difference using evidence from the poem. This is one way the test assesses whether a child is proficient in reading. The unfortunate truth? Too many Illinois students are not. In 2024, just 30% of fourth graders across Illinois were proficient in reading, according to the Nation's Report Card. In 2019, 34% of Illinois fourth graders were proficient in reading. That's a significant decline and a clear sign that our current approach is failing. A proficient fourth grader can read a poem or story and describe how characters influence one another. They can make inferences from what they read. By contrast, a student who isn't proficient can't do either of those things and may only be able to determine the meaning of familiar words. Every child who leaves school without the gift of literacy carries a burden — one that gets heavier as they get older. Without strong reading skills, school becomes frustrating. Learning turns into an experience of failure rather than discovery. Students lose confidence, disengage and fall further behind. Many eventually drop out, face job insecurity or even enter the criminal justice system. This literacy crisis affects children across the state — from East St. Louis to Springfield to the Chicago suburbs. The pandemic accelerated the decline, but our educational shortcomings were evident long before that. The question is: What are we going to do about it? State lawmakers had a chance to help low-income students by renewing the Invest in Kids Act, a scholarship program that helped children attend private schools that better fit their needs. But in 2024, Illinois legislators let it expire, stripping thousands of students of educational options. Now, a new opportunity has emerged. Republicans in Congress have introduced the Educational Choice for Children Act, a federal program that would provide tax-credit scholarships for K-12 students nationwide. Like Invest in Kids, this initiative would offer families a lifeline if their public school isn't meeting their child's needs. Of course, Chicago Teachers Union leadership will oppose this — but the reality is that school choice remains popular in Illinois, with a majority of residents supporting the concept. More importantly, choice introduces accountability into a system that, for decades, has faced little real competition. Martin West, academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, sees a troubling trend in national test scores. NAEP data from the mid-1990s through 2010 showed progress in reading and math, particularly among low-income students. What changed? 'That was a period where there was more consistent emphasis on standards-based reform and holding schools accountable,' West told us. 'Most observers would agree that there's been a softening of accountability since then.' He's right. Schools, like any institution, need incentives to improve. Right now, there are no consequences when a school fails to prepare the majority of its students to read and do math at grade level. But when families have the option to leave, schools have to find a way to improve outcomes or risk losing students. That's what educational choice provides: a system that rewards excellence, rather than perpetuating failure. To be clear, though, we just as strongly support excellence in Illinois public schools and think every kid should have access to top-tier reading instruction. But the Nation's Report Card is clear: Illinois students are struggling. They need options. They need accountability. And they need a system that prioritizes their futures, not the politics of the adults in charge. If we continue down this path, we will continue robbing children of their potential. Literacy should not be a privilege — it should be a guarantee for all of Illinois' young people. And we have a shared responsibility to make sure every child receives that gift.
