Vote no: There’s no place for school vouchers in Illinois | Opinion

Here in Winnebago County, our public schools are at the heart of every community, opening their doors to all kids to educate our next generation of residents.

Unfortunately, 99% of those students are in school districts that, according to Illinois’ own formula for school funding, do not have the dollars they need to educate their student population.

Although Illinois has made some progress towards full state funding for all districts, a new threat to our public school system looms on the horizon.

Last July Congress created a federal school voucher program, structured like the one Illinois chose to end just two years ago, as a “tax credit scholarship program.”

Taxpayers make a contribution to a so-called “scholarship granting organization” or SGO and in return will get a 100% tax credit off their federal tax bill, up to $1700. Those dollars are then sent as vouchers to private schools or companies offering education services.

This complicated tax scheme intentionally obscures the fact that it will divert billions of federal dollars to pay for private education, mostly at religious schools — despite the prohibitions in the US (and Illinois’) constitution on government-funded religious activity.

Thankfully, Congress gave every state’s governor the option of saying no to this voucher boondoggle, and our state can refuse to participate.

On March 17th, Winnebago County voters will weigh in via a non-binding advisory referendum on whether Illinois should opt in to the voucher program.

Deceptively, the wording of the ballot question highlights the fact that under the law, some public school families could use funds from SGOs to pay for individual education expenses.

The reality is the vast majority of dollars that flow through SGOs will go to private, religious schools to cover tuition and fees, benefiting mostly wealthy families who would send their children to private school regardless of the availability of vouchers.

Extensive research has shown vouchers do not improve education outcomes, particularly for low-income students. Furthermore, private schools, even those accepting public dollars, can and do discriminate against students with disabilities, English-language learners, and LGBTQ+students.

Under Illinois’ now defunct state-run voucher program, the majority of private schools getting voucher funds had discriminatory policies. Almost nine out of ten reported serving no special education students. About half gave no vouchers to Black students; a third, no vouchers to Latinx students.

So far, the federal agencies that will administer the program are indicating that states will have little ability to rein in SGOs and private schools to ensure that voucher funds aren’’t used to discriminate or even to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, which has plagued state-run voucher programs around the country.

Winnebago County’s public schools, like all Illinois’ public schools, must comply with state and federal civil rights laws to educate all students. They need the fiscal resources to do that well.

Funding for our public schools, including for wraparound services like tutoring and afterschool programs, should be sustainable and stable, not subject to the whims of donors writing checks to unregulated SGOs for tax breaks.

Since the Illinois General Assembly passed the improved state funding formula in 2017, we’ve known exactly how much our schools need to educate the students they serve. It is now time for us as a state to put in the public dollars to fully fund that formula, not get distracted with gimmicks that will send public dollars to private programs that discriminate.

Winnebago County should vote no on the voucher ballot referendum, urge Governor Pritzker to opt out of the voucher program, and ask state legislators to step up and fully fund our schools the right way.

Claire McIntyre is the League of Women Voters Education Chair. Her guest column has been submitted in affiliation with the American Association of University Women, Rockford Eliminate Racism 815, Harlem Federation of Teachers Local 540, Illinois Education Association, League of Women Voters of Greater Rockford, NAACP Rockford and Women’s March Rockford.