(The Center Square) – With the “one big beautiful bill” now law, a national school choice scholarship tax credit program will launch in 2027. A school choice advocate says Illinois should opt in.
Part of the expansive measure is a 100% federal tax credit for individuals donating up to $1,700 to scholarship granting organizations to fund school choice programs for families making no more than 300% of an area’s median gross income.
Jonathan Greenberg, CEO of scholarship granting organization Empower Illinois, said the program is monumental, even if the individual tax credit is only $1,700.
“That means you can write a check to a scholarship granting organization who will give that money to a kid so they can go to private school and you get $1,700 off your federal taxes,” Greenberg said.
The law President Donald Trump signed on Independence Day says states that voluntarily elect to participate “shall provide” a list of the scholarship granting organizations that meet the requirements.
“The election under this paragraph shall be made by the Governor of the State or by such other individual, agency, or entity as is designated under State law to make such elections on behalf of the State with respect to Federal tax benefits,” the law says.
Greenberg said there’s no reason for Illinois legislators not to opt Illinois into the program.
“The only reason not to do it is if you are a legislator or a candidate for governor who is beholden to the adult special interest teachers unions,” Greenberg told The Center Square. “That’s the only reason not to do it.”
Public school teachers unions and supportive groups say such programs take money away from public schools.
“The so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is nothing short of the Great American Heist – a cruel, calculated effort to strip students and working families of education, healthcare, and economic mobility,” said EdTrust. “Curbing aid for students and borrowers, dismantling SNAP and Medicaid, and handing public dollars to private schools isn’t patriotic; it’s un-American.”
Greenberg said that’s not true.
“It doesn’t cost our schools in Illinois a dime,” Greenberg said. “All $44 billion of that money that put into education last year still goes to public education.”
The federal school choice scholarship tax credit program begins in 2027 and there is no sunset, unlike Illinois’ Invest in Kids tax credit program that sunset at the end of 2023.
Since the measure requires states to opt in, Greenberg said his organization will make that an issue in upcoming election cycles.
