Wilhour Urges Governor to Maintain Program for Low Income Students

A pilot program aimed at helping low income families have more education choices for their children is facing extinction if Gov. Pritzker has his way, according to State Representative Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City), who is co-sponsoring a measure urging him to keep the program intact.

“It seems disingenuous to me that a billionaire would take issue with scholarship programs to help families struggling to make ends meet have more choices in where to send their kids to school,” Wilhour said. “People of means should not be the only ones who can access private and parochial schools.”

In 2017 as part of the bipartisan budget agreement, the Legislature approved the Invest in Kids Act, which is a five-year pilot program
providing a tax credit for donations to organizations that provide scholarships to kids to attend private and parochial schools.

House Resolution 169 urges Gov. Pritzker to keep the Invest in Kids program in effect the full five years and it also encourage Congress to pass the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act.

The Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act would provide a dollar for dollar tax credit for donations to organizations providing scholarships to low income families to help better afford the education options best for them and their children up to $5 billion.

“One of the only positive aspects of the budget agreement is the one thing Governor Pritzker wants to undo,” Wilhour said. “The money for these scholarships comes from private funds. The only thing the state is doing is giving a little bit of a tax break for making donations to scholarship granting organizations. It is a bipartisan program to help kids. Let’s give the program a chance to work before pulling the plug on it.”