Good to see a longer story on Invest in Kids voucher program (which hasn't happened since 2018 WBEZ story) & inclusion of interview w/ public school parent chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-in… But some impt info about St. Francis de Sales HS specifically is missing from story:
According to ISBE data, St Francis de Sales isn't serving any special education students. ISBE doesn't report anything about ELLs in (registered) private schools, but there's no mention on SFDS website of ELL/bilingual services isbe.net/_layouts/Downl…
Note: George Washington HS, CPS HS serving East Side where most of families/students in article are from is 18% students w/ IEPS & 23% English-language learners—students that do NOT have option of getting an IIK voucher to attend St. Francis de Sales cps.edu/schools/school…
IL tax dollars are already funding religious private schools through Invest in Kids which employs a middleman to skirt the separation of church & state. Is it a foot in the door to extreme Oklahoma policy providing public funding for a religious charter? Could it happen here?
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.
🧵 - IL AG released an investigative report yesterday, five years in the making, - "Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in IL" …rgyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov
This report on IL dioceses covering up—and in some cases continuing to conceal—abuse of almost 2000 children is another, especially appalling, reminder of why public $ shouldn’t be diverted to private institutions w/almost no public transparency, oversight or accountability.
The intent of the AG’s report is to “provide a public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence” which addresses (in part) past wrongdoing. …rgyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/introduction/m…
The Illinois General Assembly went home last Friday without wrapping up Spring Session, and they'll be back at the Capitol tomorrow because there's no budget for Fiscal Year 2024 yet—and no decision on whether the Invest in Kids voucher program will end! Here’s what you can do…
If your state rep and senator haven't heard from you this week, it's time to pick up the phone again to ask them to let the voucher program sunset.
Sun-Times/WBEZ story today on closed CPS buildings features Field School, private schl located in former CPS school (Key)—not mentioned is that 40% of students receive Invest in Kids vouchers but Field doesn't serve students w/ moderate-severe disabilities graphics.suntimes.com/education/2023…
We've talked about the Field School for months. It's the perfect example of how because private religious schools can discriminate, giving them public $s creates two-tier public ed system. Field is surrounded by CPS schools w/ high numbers of students with disabilities.
Field School wiped their website after we started publicizing the fact that they don't serve students with disabilities