The editorial “A second chance for school choice in Illinois” (July 16) notes another ill-conceived aspect of Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill: a new school choice program that provides a tax credit, not an itemized deduction, to people who donate up to $1,700 each year to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). Students are eligible for these scholarships if their household income is at or below 300% of the area median income.

It is a win-win for private and religious schools as well as for wealthy taxpayers: The taxpayers receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, which is much more generous than getting an itemized deduction for donating to another kind of charity.

The bill would cap the tax credit allowance at $5 billion in each of the next four years, through 2029. That is $5 billion each year that the Internal Revenue Service is not collecting.

If donors choose to donate stock to the SGO, they will pay no capital gains tax on any profit incurred. Normally, when stock is sold, capital gains taxes are paid on any increase in a stock’s value.

It is estimated that the capital gains tax avoidance over the next decade would amount to $2.2 billion.

This school choice measure means that even taxpayers who do not participate are in effect contributing to private and religious schools, wealthy taxpayers are realizing yet another windfall, and public education loses students and funding to religious and private schools.

The genius of public schools in America is that all students are guaranteed a free education. If we are unhappy with our public schools, the answer is not to fund private and religious schools but to more adequately invest in public schools!

This school choice bill requires states to opt into the program. I hope Gov. JB Pritzker sees the harm to public schools that this program promises and refuses to allow it in Illinois.

— Janet Kittlaus, Glenview

Better public schools

Despite claims that programs such as Invest in Kids don’t cost the state a dime, school choice is far from free for Illinois. The federal school voucher program buried in the “Big Beautiful Bill” will be expensive, and research increasingly shows that voucher programs do not help the students they claim to serve.

Tax credit scholarship programs do cost money. Every dollar designated for tax credit scholarships is a public dollar stolen from our public education system. In other words, voucher programs are an effort to privatize education and absolve states from the responsibility of providing a high-quality education for all students. Invest in Kids capped donations at $75 million every year. That’s $75 million in public tax dollars that could have potentially gone toward underfunded public schools serving low-income students of color.

Advocates for these programs are failing to look at the big picture. Yes, about 9,600 students received scholarships from Invest in Kids to attend private institutions. But what about the 1.8 million-plus students who are attending Illinois’ public schools, many of them underfunded neighborhood schools?

Research has also shown that the majority of students who benefit from these programs are those who already have the means to attend private schools. For example, in Florida in 2023, 69% of new voucher recipients were already enrolled in private school, and only 13% left their public schools to enter the program.

Voucher programs lack oversight and accountability, and they aren’t obligated to serve all students fairly. Voucher programs remain unpopular among voters in other states. In 2024, voters in three states rejected efforts to expand school choice programs. A recent poll by All4Ed showed that both Republican and Democratic voters want to increase funding for public schools rather than increase funding for voucher programs.

The public is not asking for more voucher programs. We are asking for excellent, fully resourced public schools. And Illinois is far behind full funding.

True education equity means ensuring every child has access to a fully funded, high-quality public education, not creating the illusion of “choice” for a few students while leaving everyone else behind.

Illinois made the right choice when we as a state let Invest in Kids sunset. Opting into a federal voucher program that is costly and ineffective would be irresponsible for our state and our students. Instead, let’s invest boldly and improve access to excellent educational opportunities for all students.

— Erykah Nava, PEER IL lead organizer, Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, Chicago

Illinois nursing homes

The recent story about News & World Report ranking Illinois 47th out of 50 states for nursing home quality was written with exacting precision detailing the shameful conditions in Illinois nursing homes (“Illinois nursing homes ranked among the worst,” July 7). It was not surprising.

There is little accountability in Illinois for nursing homes, especially privately owned ones that find new ways to circumvent state regulations to make big profits while providing substandard care for residents.

In the past, allowing families to hold nursing homes accountable by pursuing their rights through the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act provided an incentive to nursing homes to provide better care. But in recent years, the Nursing Home Care Act has been rendered worthless. Many nursing homes have found loopholes and exploited a lack of financial transparency to avoid legal judgments and accountability.

If an Illinois nursing home is severely underinsured and residents suffer injuries or die due to the nursing home’s negligence, abuse, understaffing or poor care, there is little or no money for the victims or their families to recover.

Also, nursing homes may quickly switch ownership when accountability comes due. Victims and their families receive no justice for their loss and suffering. The nursing homes then may reopen under a different name.

When the Nursing Home Care Act was enacted in Illinois in 1979 to protect residents from abuse and neglect, there was an acknowledgment that state and local governments cannot police nursing homes on their own and that private attorneys, acting like attorneys general, would help to hold nursing homes accountable.

History has shown that lawsuits and litigation can drive significant changes in society and prompt more responsible business practices. That’s why Illinois lawmakers must address current loopholes allowing nursing homes to avoid litigation and financial responsibility.

Better care will never be provided unless victims can pursue full accountability.

— Margaret Battersby Black, managing partner, Levin & Perconti

Those lost to COVID-19

Many thanks to Tribune reporter Christopher Borrelli for his compassionate, poignant feature on the forgotten souls of the 1995 Chicago heat wave (“Forgotten souls,” July 13).

It does, however, make me wonder if there will ever be a memorial or a day to honor the more than 1 million American victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of whom were also people of color residing in low-income neighborhoods like those who died in Chicago 30 years ago.

It’s likely we’ll ignore the mistakes made then and forget them, too.

— Janice Laird, Crystal Lake

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