{"id":2228014,"date":"2024-04-23T10:23:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T14:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/education-expert-analyzes-invest-in-kids-record-breaking-numbers-for-final-year\/"},"modified":"2024-04-23T10:25:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T14:25:56","slug":"education-expert-analyzes-invest-in-kids-record-breaking-numbers-for-final-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/education-expert-analyzes-invest-in-kids-record-breaking-numbers-for-final-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Education specialist evaluates Invest in Kids&#8217; exceptional achievements in its last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Feducation-expert-analyzes-invest-in-kids-record-breaking-numbers-for-final-year%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2228014&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u2062 Center Square reported that Illinois lawmakers have not addressed the expired Invest in Kids school\u2064 choice scholarship program \u2063despite record-breaking\u2064 enrollment in its final year. Speculations about the General Assembly discussing \u2063the program during the\u2063 spring legislative session\u2062 have not materialized yet. The Center Square reported that Illinois lawmakers have\u2063 not addressed the\u2062 expired Invest in Kids school choice scholarship program despite record-breaking enrollment \u2063in its final year. Speculations about\u2064 the \u2064General Assembly discussing the program during the spring legislative session have not materialized\u200d yet.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013\u00a0Despite record-breaking enrollment for its final year, Illinois lawmakers have yet to address the expired Invest in Kids school choice scholarship program.<\/p>\n<p>There were rumblings that the General Assembly may take up the program during the spring legislative session, but that has yet to happen.  <\/p>\n<p>According to the American Federation for Children, the program witnessed over 15,000 students in its last academic year, marking a significant increase from prior years.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a loud call to renew the program, lawmakers last spring chose to let the program expire for its seventh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/brian-kolfage-one-florida-school-combated-covid-by-going-back-to-normal-as-a-result-the-children-and-teachers-are-safe-and-happy\/\" title=\"Brian Kolfage: One Florida School Combated COVID By Going Back to Normal \u2013 As a Result the Children and Teachers Are Safe and Happy\">school year<\/a>, a win for teachers unions that claimed that it directed money from public schools. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy first reaction to it is it\u2019s just a sad situation in terms of the amount of students that are coming into the program and telling them the next school year they are not going to be able to go to the same school that is serving them well,\u201d said AFC spokesperson Hera Varmah.<\/p>\n<p>Before it expired at the end of last year, Invest in Kids allowed Illinois residents and businesses to receive a tax credit worth 75% of their contributions to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chris-talgo-education-choice-for-children-act-would-be-a-total-game-changer\/\" title=\"Chris Talgo: Education Choice for Children Act Would Be a Total Game Changer\">scholarship granting organizations<\/a> that fund scholarships for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/calif-gov-newsom-announces-2b-plan-to-reopen-schools-by-spring\/\" title=\"Calif. Gov. Newsom announces B plan to reopen schools by spring\">low-income students<\/a> to attend qualified private and technical schools.<\/p>\n<p>Several private schools announced they were closing at the end of the school year because so many students relied on Invest in Kids scholarships. Last week, St. Bede School in Ingleside announced it will shut its doors unless the program is renewed. A $500,000 fundraising effort is not enough to save the school. <\/p>\n<p>Empower Illinois and other proponents of the Invest in Kids program plan to continue lobbying for its return.<\/p>\n<p>Darnell Starks of Peoria, who has two granddaughters who were enrolled in the program, drove to Springfield last week to urge lawmakers to take action because he said they can\u2019t afford to send the girls to their former school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been very concerned that the state legislature hasn\u2019t renewed this program, because without it, these two can\u2019t attend the school of their choice and it\u2019s been a perfect fit for them,\u201d Starks told The Center Square.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illinois faces unresolved Invest in Kids program issues despite high enrollment in its last year. Lawmakers have not addressed the expired school choice scholarships. Speculation arose about the General Assembly discussing the program in the spring session, but no action has been taken yet. Source: American Federation for Children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2228015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/iStock-1142994920-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/iStock-1142994920-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2228015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}