* The Washington Post…
The Trump administration took a major step Thursday toward launching the nation’s first federally funded school voucher program, set to steer billions of tax dollars to private schools — but also, perhaps, to public school students.
The Treasury Department released long-awaited rules that will govern the first-of-its-kind effort before it’s implemented in January. States must decide whether to participate, and many Democratic governors had said they would wait for the regulations before making a decision. […]
The voucher-like program, called the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, was created by last year’s giant Republican tax and spending bill. It provides a 100 percent tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs), which will pass along the money to families. It was designed to primarily benefit students attending private schools, but SGOs may also be set up to help pay out-of-pocket expenses for public school students, further complicating the politics for Democrats.
Governors have until Jan. 1 to opt in. Thirty mostly Republican-led states have already joined. Most of the remaining states that have not rejected the plan are led by Democrats.
In January, Gov. JB Pritzker blamed the lack of federal rules for not acting on the tax credit. I’ve asked his office for comment and will update when I hear back.
* Education Week…
During a call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Treasury and Education department officials previewed the regulations and offered some answers to outstanding questions on the program’s operations.
States, for example, won’t be allowed to block certain types of scholarship-granting organizations, or SGOs, from accepting tax credit-eligible donations, or dictate to whom SGOs direct funds. Some Democratic policymakers have sought to allow only SGOs that give out scholarships to public school students or students from low-income families, as well as impose antidiscrimination and academic accountability requirements on SGOs and the schools and organizations that accept scholarship money.
Children from low-income families who already participate in public benefit programs or school-based tutoring programs will be automatically eligible to receive scholarships. And annual independent audits of SGOs will be required.
The regulations—which are open for public comment today through the end of November—also pave the way for scholarship-granting organizations to operate in multiple states, according to a news release announcing the regulations. […]
[Officials] also emphasized that public school students can benefit—echoing a call from advocates in recent months for K-12 districts to pay attention to the program and position themselves to take advantage of potential new funding.
…Adding… From the Governor’s office…
“The Governor’s Office is currently reviewing the newly released guidance from the Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about the structure and requirements of the Federal Scholarship Program Tax Credit. As stated since the federal government announced this program, the Governor’s Office will carefully evaluate the proposed regulations and make a decision grounded in what best supports working families, students, and our public schools.”
- It's always Sunny in Illinois - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 12:52 pm:
This cake was baked by Stacy Davis Gates the day it was announced…..No way JB Pritzker going to opt Illinois into the program
- Future Arthur Spooner - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:13 pm:
Illinois taxpayers will be participating in the federal tax program. Let’s keep those education dollars in IllinoIs and hope the Governor doesn’t let politics get in the way.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:17 pm:
===It provides a 100 percent tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs)===
Not a write off, a credit. So someone who owes the feds $10,000 in taxes can instead give $10,000 to their local Christian Nationalist Day Camp where children are taught that dinosaurs lived alongside humans until the great flood happened and have zero federal tax liability.
This does not seem very fiscally conservative of very responsible.
Get a load of what has already happened in Iowa with our neighbors version of using public funds to support the religious schools with little or no oversight.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:23 pm:
=== Let’s keep those education dollars in IllinoIs and hope the Governor doesn’t let politics get in the way. ===
By not opting in, Illinois is not creating a market for grifters to set up shop in the State of Illinois with their “schools that aren’t really schools” educational model and would prevent harm to children who would be enrolled in these not really a schools and not incentivizing existing organizations who are not prepared or equip to operate a school to give it a try for ‘free money.’
We’re also sparing some would be criminals of the opportunity to commit crimes related to the misuse of funds.
- Demmm - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:29 pm:
Good luck running in the Democratic primary for President if you support vouchers.
- Mr. Middleground - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:34 pm:
Career and technical education is growing rapidly, and it is being made available to public education students. The problem is tuition (even for career programs like nursing, welding, robotic maintenance) is expensive. Pritzker should opt in and capitalize on this money which would be a catalyst for career and skill education. Opt out and our state falls further behind.
- Niles Township - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:37 pm:
I hate the reflexive responses here and elsewhere when the “other team” has a program, you’re not on “our team” if you think it’s a good idea. I’m a lifelong Democrat. This is a good idea on so many levels the way it has been structured including support for public school students who need it. Don’t be reflexive. Dig in and learn the details. Democratic governors Polis (CO) and Hochul (NY) get it and have opted in. They are grown ups. Let’s hope our governor is one too.
- Mr. Middleground - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:38 pm:
— someone who owes the feds $10,000 in taxes can instead give $10,000—
They could definitely give that much (assuming they found a qualifying SGO); however, it wouldn’t be because of tax credit which is capped at $1,700 per person.
- Frida's Boss - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:45 pm:
He’ll say no.
Btw, there are private Jewish schools and private Muslim schools, but nice attack on Christians.
- The Wire - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:46 pm:
I am not sure how to feel about this.
In a perfect world where schools are all attempting to provide the best education possible to its students, I would have no problem with this program so long as the recipients are means tested and are under a certain income threshold. I admittedly am only familiar with the Catholic School system in the Chicago Metro area, and find that some of the best schools of this state are a part of this system. The issue here is that many folks in the Chicago area cannot afford to attend these schools and have to attend inferior schools that do not provide the programming or, more importantly, an environment conducive to learning.
Under the current federal administration, however, I do not have confidence that this program wouldn’t be subject to widespread abuse by having wealthy students get their education at elite private schools paid for by dollars that would have otherwise went to fund government services.
Another component to this is that the Federal Government currently has $40 Trillion in debt and growing. In the coming years, I expect the bill to come due, especially because there is significantly lower demand for US debt that will ultimately hinder our country’s ability to fund its existing obligations. We cannot afford this program with the current tax structure in place.
I guess on balance, I would say no - we should not opt in. But the state can and should consider alternative programs that are more narrowly tailored for the needs of this state.
- Think Again - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:46 pm:
=“schools that aren’t really schools” =
Illinois has a robust Catholic school network that offers parents who live where CPS schools are failing a real hope. I have worked in partnership with Christ the King Jesuit High School in Chicago- they offer a great education and a work-study program. They are decidedly real, and many families could use the assistance offered by the federal program.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 1:55 pm:
Candy - are you alleging or stating that private Christian schools are all Christian Nationalist Day Camps?
Frida is correct. There are Jewish, Muslim, and even science-based private schools as well. The drive-by attacks on Christian schools are a bit tiresome.
- Mr. Middleground - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:03 pm:
— subject to widespread abuse by having wealthy students get their private school paid for—
The program is only eligible for households making less than 3 times the median area income. The wealthy don’t qualify—middle class and below are eligible. For the first time, this would open opportunity for these students.
Also, worth nothing is that regardless of if we opt in, Illinois taxpayers can still contribute and receive the tax credit. By opting out, we just guarantee that money is not available to benefit our students and is instead sent out of state.
- here we go again - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:03 pm:
No doubt Pritzker and the rest of the Illinois Dems will side with their teacher union overlords over disadvantaged children and their opportunity for a better future. Sad.
- Ed - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:07 pm:
By definition, this program is not a voucher.
- thechampaignlife - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:19 pm:
A quick read of § 1.25F-5 of the proposed regs (https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-20277.pdf) indicate that there may be a backdoor method states could use to restrict SGOs. The state could heavily tax donations to SGOs that do not exclusively grant scholarships to public school students. Or, because the regs require the SGO to be authorized to do business in the state, it may be possible to withhold business licenses from such organizations.
- CapnCrunch - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:24 pm:
- Niles Township - is correct. Instead of sending $3400 to the feds a married filing jointly family can send it to an Illinois school. Silly to reject that offer.
- Two Left Feet - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:35 pm:
Quick read of the proposed rule. There are income requirements. Eligible students must be in a household not more than 300 percent of area median gross income. Which for Chicagoland area is $364,500 for a family of four. Ok, that’s high. Like nearly all of the population.
- Ed - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:51 pm:
- the champaign life -
Respectfully, the proposed rules state the exact opposite.
- Hmmmm - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 2:58 pm:
@Mr Middleground
“The problem is tuition (even for career programs like nursing, welding, robotic maintenance) is expensive. Pritzker should opt in and capitalize on this money which would be a catalyst for career and skill education.”
This is a nonsensical solution - the voucher dollars are for K12 nonpublic schools, not CTE programs within public schools. We get federal Perkins dollars for CTE in public schools (not enough, but that’s the lever). The feds also just initiated Workforce Pell to allow students to use Pell eligibility for approved short term workforce training programs, like the ones you mention in nursing and welding.
- SAW - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:01 pm:
“Also, worth nothing”
This typo is doing a lot of work here…
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:02 pm:
===Candy - are you alleging or stating that private Christian schools are all Christian Nationalist Day Camps?===
Some of them certainly are, but you’re more than welcome to cherry pick. I said “Christian Nationalist Day Camps.” Did you hear something different? If you’re thinking of a school that’s not a Christian Nationalist Day Camp, then I probably didn’t mean that school. I am wholeheartedly against Nat-C Schools and Nat-C Day Camps. Are you?
The idea that the Trump Administration is structuring this program to benefit well established private education models in the United States is a pretty silly premise to believe.
But — I apologize if my comment wasn’t all inclusive of the problems that can occur with public support of religious education institutions and this institutions promote bigotry.
Publicly funded religious education is bad regardless of the religious organization who is operating it. Better?
===They are decidedly real===
So where are the regulations that would prevent these federal funds from being directed to organizations that aren’t really schools?
If you want to green light it because it will help your specific group, okay, but you should at least look around and see who your bed fellows are. If you favored policy proposal creates a loophole for federal funds to create as I have styled them, Christian Nationalist Day Camps and Schools that Aren’t Really Schools, then maybe you should take pause about whether that proposal should really be supported.
If you think federal funds should be used to support schools that teach kids that Dinosaurs co-existed with human beings then you should lead with that. We don’t need public funds being spent to promote literal ignorance and call it education.
- Think Again - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:13 pm:
= the IRS anticipates publishing the applicable limitations by geographic area and family size annually=
The income limits have yet to be published, so the “$364,500 for a family of four” is at best an estimate, and the regs clearly state that SGO’s can use a much narrower income limit as long as they follow the other guidelines.
- Frida's Boss - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:20 pm:
Maybe before we worry about fraud, after we put the program in place, with the restrictions and rules the Fed has outlined.
I mean, we see fraud in federal grants all the time; we’re not saying to stop federal grants. We see Medicaid and Medicare fraud all the time, we’re not saying stop that.
- School Guy - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:21 pm:
I think it has to be noted that the GOP has figured out a way to make this almost too good to pass up. Federal dollars (by way of tax credits) go to public and private schools if taxpayers opt in. There is no cost to the state. In fact, it could save money if students opt to attend private schools instead of public schools, reducing the head count. Opting out would mean IL taxpayers could send their contributions to schools in other states, which would be more than frustrating.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:44 pm:
Candy - yeah no. That is some serious Kamala-style world salad. And extremely offensive & over-the-top.
- Panther Pride - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 3:49 pm:
I’m admittedly a little surprised some are forgetting that we had a program very similar to this in IL that is not in effect any more because it did not, as a whole, do all of the things its GOP and other proponents said it would.
The Invest In Kids program gave a 75% tax credit for individual and business contributions for scholarships exactly like these. When debates were raging ahead of its sunset in 2023, the General Assembly rightly asked if it was living up to the hype — helping minority students and socio-economically disadvantaged students getting into better private schools, lessening the burden on public schools, etc. And their conclusions were that IIK failed at those metrics. More white kids received the scholarships than minority students year-over-year and the data showed that disparity actually increased year-over-year. And a report from ISBE showed that student recipients had lower test scores than comparable students in public schools.
I do sometimes go back and forth on this issue because I don’t want to brush individual students’ successes via these scholarships under the rug of statistics. But at the end of the day, we’re talking about tax dollars that go into our public school systems and other state or federal programs that can help students in every facet of life. Until a program can be designed that limits scholarships to only those students who genuinely need it and aren’t just tokens for wealthy tax breaks, I say the Gov shouldn’t join in.
- MyTwoCents - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 4:00 pm:
My thoughts on this are the exact same when Illinois had a program. I’m generally opposed to making the tax code more complicated than it already is. Why should these donations be treated any differently than donating to any other non-profit organization? Those donations are already tax-deductible. As for public schools, interested parties can set up foundations serving local districts and the same comment applies to tax-deductible donations.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 4:09 pm:
I’m opposed to giving public money to private schools, especially private religious schools. I’m not opposed to them. No problem if you send your kids there. Just don’t expect me to pay for it. If these people were truly about private education they wouldn’t have any problem donating funds to these private schools to allow for scholarships for kids without getting a tax credit.
==And extremely offensive==
Christians have really grabbed ahold of playing the victim.
- Oklahoma - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 4:23 pm:
I read the regs. Basically, $12,000 scholarships for students in households making about $360,000 per year or less. Which is pretty much everyone.
Paid for by the federal government.
Schools with big alumni networks will have no problem “raising” $1,700 - $3,400 from current, past, and future families to be able to give a “scholarship” to everyone.
The $360k is not a guess or “at best an estimate,” it is literally in the regulations where they define HUD median income using the HUD levels. Just look up Chicago’s HUD levels. They even provide a formula.
Lots of Archdiocese posters here today. They will do very well. Maybe it means they stop closing down schools.
Latin, Parker, Lab, etc. will also do very well. Maybe it means they get to build that new building.
If this was the 90s, I bet people would get a lot more worked up about this. But these days, we just throw around federal money at statues, ballrooms, Iran, AI, and whatever crony Trump had dinner with the night before. What’s a few more billion for something else that’s a little less controversial.
Since fundraising activities are considered scholarship activities, I would imagine some fundraising organizations are going to find ways to retain a significant portion of these dollars, as well.
- thechampaignlife - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 4:35 pm:
@Ed: My read of §1.25F-5(e)(2) is that the State cannot add requirements for how SGOs operate, but nothing I can see in the regs says the State cannot decide whether or not to allow certain organizations to exist at all or how those organizations are taxed. If the organization is not eligible under state law for a business license, it is not “located in the State” as required by 25F(g)(1)(A) and therefore not eligible to be certified as an SGO to begin with. Now, there may be issues with this from an equal protection or corporate tax rate cap standpoint (if such organizations were to be taxed heavily instead of outright banned from a business license), but I am not familiar enough with case law on those points.
- SAW - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 4:43 pm:
” We see Medicaid and Medicare fraud all the time, we’re not saying stop that.”
The premise of Medicaid and Medicare is good. The premise of public funds being diverted to private K-12 schools is bad. Simple as.
- Steve - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 5:54 pm:
-The premise of public funds being diverted to private K-12 schools is bad-
The famous Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter would like to have a talk with you . His infamous quote is rather pertinent here: “The state has been living on a revenue which was being produced in the private sphere for private purposes and had to be deflected from these purposes by political force. The theory that construes taxes on the analogy of club dues or of the purchase of the services of, say, a doctor only proves how far removed this part of the social sciences is from scientific habits of mind.”
- JS Mill - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 6:21 pm:
=“The state has been living on a revenue which was being produced in the private sphere for private purposes and had to be deflected from these purposes by political force.=
Schumpeter apparently never read a history book. Free public education was available (paid for by the public) beginning during the early colonial period.
Private education, until recently, was always intended to be privately financed. If it uses public dollars it should be subject to the same rules and requirements as public schools since they are now publicly funded schools. ALL rules and regulations including FOIA.
That private schools are struggling financially, with many catholic schools in Illinois closing empirically demonstrates that the market is not there and should not be propped up by public dollars.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 6:26 pm:
=Career and technical education is growing rapidly, and it is being made available to public education students. The problem is tuition (even for career programs like nursing, welding, robotic maintenance) is expensive.=
If you are talking about k-12 schools, I am not sure which ones charge tuition for CTE programs but that would be a new one. bWe have access to a regional CTE program as do most districts around the state if they are not large enough to house their own programs. Those CTE Career Centers are funded by a combination of state funds (direct to them) through the ISBE and funds from participating public schools.
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 6:57 pm:
==many catholic schools in Illinois closing empirically demonstrates that the market is not there==
Not at current property tax levels it isn’t.
There are many factors parochial schools are struggling - one of which less cheap labor (clergypeople) doing the teaching - but let’s not pretend high property taxes haven’t had an assist in the matter. Property taxes consume many households’ education budget almost entirely.
- Juvenal - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 7:47 pm:
At the end of the day, the choice is about whether to send your $1700 to Donald Trump or to your local school, whether it is public or private.
That’s all this bill does.
You can send your $1700 to Washington, DC, or make a $1700 donation to the Springfield Public Schools Foundation and deduct that from your tax bill.
Yes, the 12% of Illinois children who attend private school have parents who might donate $1700 and get a tax credit. And yes, the alumni who donate to their private school now will get a tax credit now which might increase their giving, but also might reduce it for many.
Now, what about the other 88%?
Are you telling me the members of Springfield Education Association do not want to write a check to the Springfield Public Education Association for $1700 and reduce their federal tax bill?
That seems hard to believe.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 8:56 pm:
=Not at current property tax levels it isn’t.
There are many factors parochial schools are struggling - one of which less cheap labor (clergypeople) doing the teaching - but let’s not pretend high property taxes haven’t had an assist in the matter. Property taxes consume many households’ education budget almost entirely.=
Let’s be grown ups and not pretend living in a civil society is an a la carte activity. Property taxes support all local services including education. Families that don’t want to use the system with eligible children know (or should know) that they are not going to get a discount or deserve a discount since they choose a different route. Most people paying property taxes don’t have kids in school, they did at one time, but when that ends they still pay the taxes because they still benefit from public schools.
And people are rejecting catholic education in part because the church did not protect the children sent to their schools from their priests. Kids like at least two of my classmates.
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Oct 1, 26 @ 10:53 pm:
- There are many factors parochial schools are struggling -
None of which are a concern of taxpayers. If you want to be private, be private.