Chicagos Morning Answer: Illinois Families Await Pritzker Decision on Education Freedom Tax Credit [DyJuy9cAgK0]
Courtesy of AM 560 The Answer: Mike Koolidge, filling in for Dan Proft, discussed growing pressure on Governor JB Pritzker to decide whether Illinois will opt into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, a school choice provision included in last year’s federal reconciliation legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Koolidge cited Capitol News Illinois reporting describing continued silence from the governor’s office on the issue, despite pressure from public school advocates, downstate voters, and state officials, and noted that a related bipartisan state Senate bill sponsored by Senator Adriane Johnson of Buffalo Grove has stalled amid limited legislative discussion. Koolidge welcomed Dr. Patrick Graff, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, to explain how the tax credit program functions and why he believes it represents a significant opportunity for Illinois families. Graff said the program allows individual taxpayers to donate up to $1,700 annually to state-authorized scholarship organizations in exchange for a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit, effectively redirecting funds that would otherwise go to the federal government toward local scholarship funding instead. He said those scholarship organizations then determine how to allocate the resulting funds toward services including tutoring, special education support, tuition assistance, and dual-enrollment coursework, with scholarship amounts varying based on individual student need rather than a fixed per-student cap.