Chapa LaVia’s war on school choice

State Rep. Chapa LaVia’s constituents oppose her efforts to limit school choice. The representative has launched a full-scale assault on school choice this legislative session, sponsoring more than a half dozen bills that would limit the growth of charter schools and put strict limits on digital learning. Two – House Bill 3754 and House Bill...

State Rep. Chapa LaVia’s constituents oppose her efforts to limit school choice.

The representative has launched a full-scale assault on school choice this legislative session, sponsoring more than a half dozen bills that would limit the growth of charter schools and put strict limits on digital learning.

Two – House Bill 3754 and House Bill 3937 – have already passed the House, with the help of teachers’ union-backed Republicans, and are being considered in the Senate.

The same We Ask America poll that showed Chapa La Via’s constituents want choice showed that a majority of residents – 55 percent – in her district disapprove of her moves to limit the number of educational options in their community.

This held true across all gender, age and ethnic groups.

The poll also showed that almost 50 percent of residents in Chapa LaVia’s district believe that families with children in traditional public schools should be able to use money spent on their children to instead pay tuition at a school of their choice.

This is slightly lower than results the Illinois Policy Institute gathered from a poll in the East Aurora school district – one of the state’s lowest-performing districts – a few months ago. There, nearly 60 percent of residents with students in East Aurora public schools supported school choice.

If Chapa LaVia was truly interested in representing her district, she’d immediately end her war on charter schools and digital learning, and work to bring school choice to her community – especially to the struggling school districts she represents.

The poll results clearly show that this is what her constituents want.