Collin Hitt, Director of Education Policy, discusses the latest news on SB 2494 from the State Capitol. This bill would allow children in the lowest performing schools in Chicago to attend private school with the use of a school voucher.
This report, prepared by the Institute for Justice, says SB294 is constitutional under both the federal Establishment Clause and the Illinois Constitution.
A detailed explanation of some of the education spending choices made in Budget Solutions 2011.
Tens of thousands of Chicago families are trapped in failing public schools. A new school voucher program has been proposed by the Reverend Senator James Meeks. Its goal is to give parents of students enrolled in the worst performing public schools the choice to send their children to private schools. Similar programs in other states...
The Rev. Senator James Meeks has proposed legislation that would create a school voucher program in Illinois. Parents whose children attend the lowest-performing public schools in Chicago would be given the opportunity to instead send their children to a private school, should they see fit. Similar pilot school voucher programs have been created throughout the...
The Rev. Senator James Meeks has proposed legislation that would create a school voucher program in Illinois. Similar pilot school voucher programs have been created throughout the country and have been thoroughly researched.
The Wall Street Journal picks up on recent efforts in Illinois to create the state's first voucher program.
The speaker was the Rev. James Meeks, explaining black resistance to vouchers. The venue was a sold-out lunch put on by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI). The result? Something new in Windy City politics: a powerful black Democrat reaching out to a free
The Problem Despite the $25 billion flowing into our public school system annually, a full 81 percent of people polled in Illinois would send their child to a school other than a traditional public school in order to receive the best possible education. Parents want to be able to send their children to charter schools,...
The Problem During these trying fiscal times, many school districts are attempting to find ways to become more efficient. Private firms are able to assist in this goal, while often improving the quality of certain services. For example, support service providers can offer more efficient busing or cafeteria services, and instructional service providers can offer...
The Problem Tuition at Illinois’s state universities is becoming less affordable for Illinois families. From 2002 to 2007, in-state tuition and fees jumped by an average of 56 percent, with no campus increasing rates by less than 42 percent and two campuses increasing rates by more than 70 percent [in inflation-adjusted dollars]. In just five...
The Problem Illinois’s Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Hispanic students will play a major role in determining the state’s economic future. Unfortunately, these two critical groups of students have remained among the lowest-performing in our schools. This is especially the case in Chicago Public Schools, where the problem is exacerbated by the fact that thousands...
The Problem What would you do if your children could be on a championship-level team…but they weren’t allowed to try out? Every day, kids from many of Illinois’s roughest communities prove they can compete in the classroom. All they need is the opportunity—an opportunity often provided by charter schools. Tragically, thousands of children are not...
The Problem Hundreds of communities and neighborhoods throughout Illinois are badly in need of better schools. In those communities it should be a realistic option for innovative educators to create new school choices for students and their families. The past fifteen years have witnessed the creation and spread of a new kind of public school:...