Invest in Kids nothing but a ‘convoluted tax dodge’
It is time for Invest in Kids to fade into the sunset.
One of the most important responsibilities of any state in the union is public education. In Illinois, the state constitution spells this out and, indeed, about 26% of the state’s general revenue fund flows to every Illinois public elementary and secondary schools.
In turn, those public schools must serve every child, regardless of religion, language, or whether their family is headed by parents of the same gender. The public schools must accommodate any disability that affects learning and help all students achieve their potential.
Public schools, where people of all backgrounds come together to provide the tools for success to all children, are the bedrock of our democracy. Public schools serve as a key institution in many rural Illinois communities, and supporting public schools is an investment in the future of our children and the strength of our state. But public education is under attack from school voucher programs like the Invest in Kids “tax credit scholarship.”
Invest in Kids is a convoluted tax dodge to divert your hard-earned dollars to private religious schools at the expense of public schools, circumventing the separation of church and state. Instead of tax deductions, Invest in Kids donors receive a tax credit at the rate of 75 cents on the dollar. Donors are allowed to send their money to a designated private school and in return the state gives them a much larger tax break than they could see with a charitable donation.
This program is administered by “scholarship granting organizations” that are allowed to skim 5% off the top of the scholarship fund that benefits just 9,000 students. Meanwhile, more than half the state’s 1.9 million public school students attend schools so poorly funded by the state that they do not have even 70% of the resources that research shows are necessary to provide an adequate education.
Research clearly shows that voucher programs do not improve student outcomes. Public schools, in contrast to private schools, cannot discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual preference or disability, are governed by elected boards, and must operate with transparency and public accountability.
Everyone who has benefitted from the Invest in Kids Program knew from the outset that it was a time-limited deal. The deal is now up. It is time to let the sun set on the Invest in Kids voucher program.
Susan Craighead, President
League of Women Voters of Naperville
Devastation of climate change seen in California storms
The drastic news of the California rainstorms and flooding hit uncomfortably close to home in recent days. I heard one story of a woman on her way home from work who had to abandon her car in a high spot to walk the next few miles in knee-deep water smelling of the Pacific Ocean because she was afraid she would be swept away. As she walked, she was also terrified she would be electrocuted by electric cables that might fall into the water.
This could be any one of us regular folks on an otherwise ordinary day … except this deadly storm brought record-breaking rainfall and flooding. We now know that the warming temperatures that have arrived with climate change allow the air to hold more moisture, worsening all kinds of storms.
We can thank our leaders for recently enacting serious climate legislation in the Inflation Reduction Act to start making a dent in our carbon emissions, but we still have a long way to go. We need to keep the pressure on them to do more. We can’t just sit back and become numb to the deluge of disasters.
How is it OK that a 5-year-old boy can be swept from his mother’s arms by this horrific storm? What will it take for us to say enough is enough? Please contact your members of Congress and insist they work together now to pass bipartisan measures that ramp up our fight against the unforgiving monster of climate change.
Karen Campbell, Bolingbrook
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