Rockford Sun

Don Gillingham met with state legislators in the waning days of the legislative session to discuss the Invest in Kids Act. 

Gillingham has been executive director at Rockford Lutheran and Walther Lutheran High School and was formerly principal at Our Savior's Lutheran. 

“Stateline legislators have been very supportive in the Invest In Kids Act. School choice is a good thing for the State of Illinois, Lutheran Schools and thousands of families! Thanks for raising their voices,” Gillingham said on Facebook. 

Donors of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. The program serves more than 9,000 K-12 students.

“This is not something that’s been covered by the budget agreement. It’s something that still has time, potentially, but it’s not something that’s in the budget agreement,” Pritzker said at a press conference announcing a budget deal had been struck, according to Prairie State Wire.

Invest in Kids is supported by Republican General Assembly members who banded together before the May 19 budget deadline to defend the program. 

“We the undersigned members of the Illinois General Assembly are expressing our support of the extension of the ‘Invest in Kids’ Scholarship Fund,” the legislators said in a letter. “This is a shared priority of both caucuses which benefits the education of underprivileged children.”

One of Invest in Kids main opponents is the Illinois Education Association which has placed ads on Facebook seeking to have funding removed from the school choice program. In literature used to support its position, the IEA has said “more white students are helped” by the scholarships. Of those currently awarded – 9,348 scholarship in total – 1,365 went to black students, 2,280 to hispanic students and 4,392 went to white students."