A group of seven teachers’ union-supported Chicago-area Congressional Democrats have joined together to demand the state end a scholarship program that helps more than 9,000 low-income students in Illinois.
Led by left-wing Chicago Democrat Jan Schakowsky (9th District), the crew of special interest Democrats demanded an end to the state-run Invest in Kids program, which gives donors to the scholarship fund a 75 percent tax credit for donating. This, the teachers’ union-besotted Democrat congresspeople said, creates “education inequities” in the Land of Lincoln, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“School vouchers, including Invest in Kids tax credit scholarships, perpetuate and deepen the education inequities that plague Illinois,” Schakowsky’s letter reads.
The accusation is hard to understand since the scholarships only go to families that are at 185 percent below the federal poverty level. One would think Democrats would feel that if any group would need “equity” measures, it is this sector of the state’s populace.
But “Democrats want to abolish Invest in Kids because it embarrasses the teachers unions,” the paper noted in its editorial.
Schakowsky was joined by fellow federal Democrat lawmakers Reps. Nikki Budzinski, Sean Casten, Danny Davis, Jonathan Jackson, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Delia Ramirez.
Why congressional representatives are meddling in this program is also hard to fathom. The program is run by the state, not the federal government, and was started by former Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-IL). It has raised nearly $2 billion since its inception to help send financially challenged Illinois kids to school.
But the Journal did spy a major reason for the meddling of these congresspeople: Teachers’ union donations to their campaigns.
Schakowsky, for instance, is the beneficiary of a huge amount of union cash because her husband, convicted felon Robert Creamer, runs a company called Strategic Consulting Group, which has been the happy recipient of more than $90,000 in cash from the Chicago Teachers Union.
The letter seems more like a sop to the unions than a serious effort to end the program, though. The program features a 2024 sunset clause that will automatically shut it down unless the state’s governor renews it for another term. And teachers’ union-pandering Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker has already said he has no desire to renew the program that has helped nearly 10,000 poor kids in the state.
Meanwhile, Pritzker has lavished an additional $2 billion on union-run school systems despite falling enrollment, plunging standards, and slumping student proficiency.
In 2021, for instance, only 33 percent of Illinois’ 11th graders could read at their age level while only 29 percent were proficient in math. And yet, the state saw graduation levels rise to more than 87 percent, the highest in years, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. Clearly standards have been lowered to achieve this goal.
These proficiency numbers have been falling for years. In 2017, 40 percent of students could read at age-appropriate levels and 36 percent were proficient in math. Yet, despite billions more thrown at the state’s union-run schools, these numbers have declined every year since 2017.
The news is even worse in Chicago, the same area the signers of Schakowsky’s letter represent. Data from the Illinois Department of Education in 2022 found that 55 public schools have zero students proficient in math and reading.
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