Can your family get federal school choice grants? Likely, if Pritzker OKs

Use our calculator to see if your family is eligible to receive a school choice grant from the Educational Choice for Children Act. Then, sign the petition to tell Gov. J.B. Pritzker to let Illinois join the federal program.

Many Illinois families could soon benefit from scholarship funds from a federal tax-credit scholarship program, but state leaders must agree to join the federal Educational Choice for Children Act.

Use our calculator to see if your family qualifies for the program. Please allow a few seconds for it to load.

The federal program provides scholarships to public- or private-school students to use for tuition, tutoring, books, educational therapies and a range of other resources to help Illinois children succeed in school. The scholarships are funded by private donations in exchange for federal tax credits up to $1,700.

The federal program would fill the gap left by Illinois’ Invest in Kids program, which Illinois lawmakers ended in 2023. When they bowed to teachers unions and killed it, lawmakers took away private school scholarships from over 15,000 low-income students in the state.

Hundreds of thousands of Illinois families could benefit

Students are eligible if their family income is within 300% of the area median income.

That means a significant share of Illinois families and students would be eligible for the federal school-choice program.

In Cook County alone, more than 822,000 students would qualify for scholarships. In DuPage County, about 149,000 students could benefit. Will County could see nearly 132,000 students become eligible.

Combined, there are about 1,326,042 students eligible from Illinois’ five most populous counties – Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will and Kane – who could receive support through the program.

Other populous counties also could benefit: Madison County has about 44,700 students eligible, while McHenry County counts nearly 57,000 students.

What the scholarships cover

Scholarships offered under the federal program would be flexible and directed by families. Parents could apply funds toward private or public school tuition, fees, academic tutoring, books, supplies and educational therapies for students with disabilities.

This flexibility is especially important for families in districts where public schools may not meet their child’s particular needs.

This program would give Illinois families opportunities similar to those already available in Indiana and Iowa, both of which operate school choice programs providing thousands of dollars per student in scholarships or savings accounts.

Choice, ahead

Illinois’ leaders must now determine whether to opt into the federal program. Participation would allow privately donated scholarship funds to flow to Illinois children at no expense to Illinois.

But if Illinois doesn’t participate, the funds will support students in other states, leaving Illinois children behind. That would include money from Illinois donors, who would receive the federal tax credit but their funds would help students in other states.

For parents, the path is clear: this is a chance to provide their children with expanded opportunities and stronger futures.

Get Illinois into the federal program

Sign the petition below to tell Gov. J.B. Pritzker to lead Illinois into the federal program. It takes nothing away from Illinois state funding for education, but failing to join the program means Illinois donations will benefit other states’ children.