Voters say Illinois students should benefit from scholarships

Illinois voters who were asked strongly support public and private school students in the state benefiting from donated money for scholarships.

Illinois voters overwhelmingly sent a message to Gov. J.B. Pritzker in the March 17 primary election: They want him to opt into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program.

Residents in all or part of 31 Illinois counties had the opportunity to vote on whether they think the state’s students should benefit from the new program, which allows for donor-provided education money.

A resounding 135,000 Illinoisans — over 63% of the vote total on the question as of Wednesday morning — had registered their support for participating. In every place in which the non-binding referendum question was on the ballot, a majority favored opting into the program.

In most of those locations the question was: “Should Illinois opt into a federal program that would provide public K-12, private school, and homeschool students with privately donated funds for academic needs, such as tutoring and test preparation, educational therapies for students with disabilities, tuition, books, exam fees or for other specified academic needs?”

While the results do not opt Illinois into the program, they send a strong message to Pritzker that he should do so.

Opting in means Illinois students struggling in reading or math could start receiving extra funding next year for tutoring and other academic services. The program will give a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit up to $1,700 each year for donations to non-profit scholarship-granting organizations.

But Illinois students can receive the money only if Pritzker opts the state into the program. If he ignores voters, taxpayers still can receive the federal tax credit for donating to students in other states.

Illinois voters in the primary made their position clear. Pritzker should listen and opt into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program.