By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ private school scholarship program’s largest facilitator of grants sent more students to schools of their choice despite a $10 million slump in donations statewide compared to the year before.
The Illinois Department of Revenue has yet to finalize the total amount donated, but Empower Illinois, the state’s largest scholarship-granting organization, estimated all scholarship-granting organizations brought in about $50 million, down from $61 million in the first year of the program. The Invest in Kids private school scholarship program offers a 75 percent state tax rebate in exchange for a donation to help a student go to the school of their choice tuition-free. In 2019, more than 46,000 students applied.
“That potential cut and cap threat to the program in the budgetary process really chilled donors,” Empower Illinois Director Anthony Holter said. “Many of the donors we’ve reached out to subsequent of that say ‘we thought the program was over.’ ”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker had proposed to halve the amount that the Invest in Kids Program could raise and to stop accepting new members instead of letting the program live out its five-year lifespan. However, Pritzker backed down after facing pressure from parents.
Empower raised $41 million, down from $45 million in 2018, according to its annual report from the 2019 school year.
Despite raising less, the organization sent 5,858 students to private schools at no cost, 400 more students than the year prior.
Holter said the reason is that schools in central and southern Illinois saw activity through the program in 2019 and tuition for those schools is cheaper compared to private school tuition in Cook County or the Chicago suburbs.
“That’s largely a product of seeing significant increases in fundraising in regions three, four, and five, or downstate,” he said.
With more than 46,000 applicants in 2019, Holter said the demand far exceeded what they could have possibly legally raised.
“We would have needed to have raised almost $300 million to satisfy that need,” he said.
The program, which gives a 75 percent state tax rebate on donations for students to attend private schools of their choosing, is capped at $100 million. Critics have said it saps state and federal funds from public schools.
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