The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune has come out strongly in favor of school choice.
In an editorial Thursday titled, “A new chance for school choice in Illinois,” the board of the left-leaning paper lamented the loss of Illinois’ school choice program for disadvantaged students while voicing full support for the federal Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), which is part of the federal budget package currently being negotiated in Washington.
“This initiative would offer families a lifeline if their public school isn’t meeting their child’s needs,” the op-ed states. “This federal initiative proposes up to $5 billion annually in tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, aiming to restore educational opportunities for disadvantaged students in Illinois and nationwide.”
The House-approved budget, passed on May 22, includes the ECCA and is now before the Senate. “We hope that the Senate passes a version of the reconciliation bill that includes this program,” the board writes.
The editorial explained the board had long supported Invest in Kids, Illinois’ tax credit-funded program that helped lower- and middle-income families send their children to private schools. But state lawmakers allowed the program to expire at the end of 2023 “at the urging of teachers unions … leaving thousands of kids out of options.”
Two-thirds of participants were from lower-income families, and more than half were black and Hispanic.
“Now, these kids and their families have reason to hope,” argues the board.
The paper acknowledged the ECCA is a Republican proposal and went on to challenge some of the common arguments used against educational freedom:
“Opponents of school choice believe that education is a zero-sum game, and that private schools are a threat to the public system. We believe the opposite – that a thriving private and charter system and a strong traditional public system create an education ecosystem that can serve everyone’s needs. There are things private schools can do that public ones can’t, and the same is very much true in reverse.”
The board noted school choice remains popular with a majority of state residents and “introduces accountability into a system that, for decades, has faced little real competition.
“When parents have options, schools must respond – whether by improving curriculum, addressing student behavior issues more effectively, or offering stronger support for struggling learners.”
It also described school choice as a matter of economic fairness.
“Right now, parents with money can tap into alternatives. Poor ones mostly cannot. We view this as fundamentally unfair, and support a world where everyone has access to transformational education options.”
Chicago Public Schools have long struggled under pressure from the Chicago Teachers Union, which wields significant political power. The CTU turned againstMayor Lori Lightfoot and helped current Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and CTU organizer, win election in 2023.
Budget squabbles and funding fights are a routine occurrence in the Windy City as student performance continues to lag. Perhaps the state of the city’s schools helped influence the editors’ perspective.
The board expressed disappointment that lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled state had “moved on from the thousands of low-income students it left behind a year and a half ago,” when Invest in Kids ended. It also lamented the loss of several private schools that were forced to shut their doors after the program ended.
“Illinois once boasted a program that allowed low-income students to obtain scholarships for private school,” the editorial begins.
Now, with the possible approval of the ECCA, students in all states – including those without existing school choice programs – could receive scholarships toward private schools or the school of their choice, opening educational freedom to all.
