The Illinois Policy Institute put an advisory referendum about education funding on this month’s ballots in some counties and townships across the state, including in McDonough and Warren counties.
The measure asks whether Illinois should opt into a new federal tax scholarship program, which is included in what supporters call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed last year.
The ballot question says the program would provide privately-donated funds to K-12 students. Those eligible would include public and private school students and homeschooled kids.
“If we don’t opt in, there’s 30 other states who’ve already agreed to opt in. And so those students in those states are going to get this money and they’re going to be applying for college against our students who are now at a disadvantage,” said Dylan Sharkey, the institute’s Public Engagement Manager.
Sharkey said state have until the end of the year to decide whether to opt in to the program. He said Iowa and Missouri are among the states that have already done so.
Sharkey said a referendum is a good way of demonstrating how the public feels about an issue.
“When you tie it to an election, especially a primary election where there’s not as much engagement, it really shows you how real voters feel, and it’s impossible to deny when you see those results,” Sharkey said.
However, only about three dozen counties and townships statewide agreed to put the measure on their ballots.
Illinois Education Association opposes the measure
The Illinois Education Association is urging residents to vote no on the referendum. The state’s largest union said the referendum is misleading, and that the federal plan would take tax dollars away from public schools and give them to private schools.
President Karl Goeke said public money should not be put into private pockets.
“There’s no need to take the money from our system of schools and put it into a system that can discriminate against students for any reason, including their religion, physical, mental or behavioral disability, their sexual orientation, or any other characteristic,” he said.
Sharkey called public schools the great equalizer for children in the state because they give everyone a chance, no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or how much their parents earn.
“What we do know, and what the public has said, is they do not believe that vouchers will do that. In fact, we know vouchers do the exact opposite,” Goeke said.
“We’ve learned that lesson, we’ve taken that test, we don’t need to repeat it again.”
The IEA calls the plan a federal school voucher scheme.
Goeke said the federal program is similar to the recently lapsed Invest in Kids program in Illinois, which he said mostly benefited white students and funded private schools that are not subject to the same state testing standards or teacher professional standards as public schools.
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