The School Management Alliance is opposed to the plan for a
statewide income tax credit program for the amount paid to a non-public school for tuition. The $75 million proposal is nothing more than a private school voucher program that would divert millions of public dollars to non-public schools. Each of the organizations that comprise the Alliance have had long-standing position statements that call for opposing voucher and tax credit schemes.
School board members and administrators are urged to contact their legislators today and ask that they reject the tax credit/voucher plan.
The Illinois House of Representatives is meeting in session later this morning, but at this time there has been no bill or amendment filed carrying the tax credit language. For that matter, there still has been no legislation filed on the rest of the school funding compromise, though leaders say that there will be a vote today.
Time is running out for taking action on an override motion on the veto of SB 1. It is still unclear on whether the plan is to override the Governor's action on SB 1, then pass trailing legislation to make the other changes the legislative leaders agreed to, or to scrap SB 1 and re-write the evidence-based funding model language into other bills.
Watch for updates throughout the day on the legislative session.