Glad to hear Gov Pritzker hasn’t made a final decision to support Invest in Kids, but we sincerely hope he isn’t actually willing to sign just ANYTHING ILGA sends him on vouchers. Invest in Kids is simply bad public policy bc it harms the public good. thedailyline.com/future-invest-…
Back in 2018, when he was running for office, Gov Pritzker was very clear on his opposition to vouchers so we know he understood their flaws at that point: ilfps.org/ilgov2018candi…
Invest in Kids Act is no better 5 years later. Among a *very* long list of reasons it needs to end, it uses Illinois tax dollars to fund virulently homophobic & transphobic institutions that teach kids about fire-breathing dinosaurs. That's not high-quality education. Period.
The full quote from Pritzker in the Daily Line makes it seem like he's not completely showing his hand yet on where he stands. Does "alleviate the burden on IL taxpayers" mean shrink the 75% credit or eliminate it given that contributors could instead get ~37% from feds anyway?
Sidenote: the Center Square (part of IPI John Tillman's "news" empire) post about that same news conf in Champaign only shared a partial quote from Pritzker w/ headline "Pritzker: Invest in Kids program may be renewed this year, but with changes"
Reminder that US News rankings of high schools primarily based on *test scores* will inevitably rank schools whose admissions policies primarily use *test scores* highly
There are in fact more meaningful & thoughtful ways to evaluate (and not rank!) students and schools
Good place to start: Massachusetts has done some school quality evaluation work via the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment: mciea.org/school-quality…
Rep Margaret Croke's HB 303 is an attempt to prevent CPS from shifting to equity-driven budgeting by protecting schools with selective admissions policies. Here's the set of SEHS & HS w/ Academic Centers' Opportunity Index measures:
As you can see there's a big range in indicator score and Opp Index score. A high Opp Index means school is less resourced & has higher need student body (among other things). See p. 4 here cpsboe.org/content/action…
Lane, Payton, Jones, Northside have the lowest OI of high schools in CPS, w/ Whitney Young close behind--but these are similar to Amundsen, Lincoln Park, Von Steuben & Lake View, 3 n'hood high schools and a magnet docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
Sidenote: hearing notice was posted yesterday: Apr 15, 2024 12:30PM - And HB 5766 content was moved to HB 303 HFA1 with Rep Croke as sponsor sometime yesterday as well.
(We learned about the amendment & hearing late last night...)
You can file slips in the House until the end of the committee hearing, so there's still time to file one for today's hearing (and also tomorrow's.) Details here: ilfps.org/action_alert_o…
Content of HB 5766, bill to put moratorium on selective admissions schools in CPS, has been modified (slightly) & introduced as amendment to HB 303. Can file witness slip to OPPOSE for hearing today (& one tomorrow?) Instructions & more info in thread below 🧵
Real talk on the transition to a fully elected board: the desirability of a fully elected board in January 2025 vs January 2027 has varied over the course of the past several years!
In Jan. 2021, when a fully elected school board was (possibly!) in reach, and the proposal on the table was six years hence, supporters of an elected board thought that was ridiculous.
An orderly transition from mayoral appointed to fully elected needs time, but not six years. That proposal passed in May 2021, meaning a five and 1/2 year transition. Which lots of pro-elected board groups (us included) were unimpressed with.
Trib story this week on vouchers and Catholic school closings also featured Christian school on Chicago's West Side which was in top 5 recipients of voucher $ last year, Chicago Hope Academy. Here's a closer look at Chicago Hope Academy... 🧵 chicagotribune.com/2024/02/08/wit…
"At Chicago Hope Academy...more than 1/2 of the students attend through tax credit scholarships. Hope Principal & Pres Ike Muzikowski said the school has committed to keeping each student enrolled, taking it upon themselves to raise the $$ for roughly 130 students on scholarship”
Both voucher use & enrollment has increased at Chicago Hope Academy since Invest in Kids started in 2018-2019 school year, but voucher use is up 400% (20 to 116), enrollment is only up by about 25% (246 to 302) during the first five years of the program: