Chicago City Wire

State Rep. Mary Gill (D-Chicago), a graduate of Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, is among several Illinois legislators who did not choose to extend the Invest In Kids Tax Credit Scholarship program. She voted for a budget that would end the program.

Gill was newly seated as an appointee to the 35th District on March 28. She has served ten years as executive director of the Mt. Greenwood Community and Business Association.

“I’m thrilled to represent the diverse 35th District and be involved in all corners [of the district],” Gill said at the time, according to The Beverly Review. “I can’t wait to meet everybody and start getting my name out there more.”

The all-girl school, which costs $13,350 per year, serves several qualifying students. Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School has a 100% college acceptance rate for its past ten graduating classes. 

Gill is one of 35 of Illinois' 177 state legislators who attended private high schools. The private high school graduates include 10 Republicans and 25 Democrats, 15 of whom were raised in the City of Chicago, according to a recent survey conducted by Prairie State Wire.

Missing from the Democrat-led 3,500 pages state budget of $50.5 billion was funding needed for the continuation of the Invest In Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Program. The program allows donors to receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. It serves more than 9,000 K-12 students who are the beneficiaries of the Invest in Kids Tax Credit. 

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

Critics highlighted the hypocrisy of lawmakers who agreed to sunset the program. Pritzker and other politicians had sent or were sending their own children to expensive private schools while denying the same opportunity to less fortunate students. The Wall Street Journal underscored the power dynamics between teachers' unions, Democratic lawmakers, and the failure of the public education system. The decision to shut down the scholarship program disregarded the needs of low-income students but prioritized the interests of unions over educational reform. The main reason behind the opposition to the program was the influence of teachers' unions, with the agenda to terminate it because its popularity highlighted the failures of public schools. 

Last year alone, the Invest in Kids program received over 31,000 applications, signifying a high demand for alternatives to underperforming public schools. Many low-income families, particularly Black and Hispanic, supported the scholarship program because their assigned Illinois schools had low proficiency rates in reading and math. The failure of the public education system was evident from the fourth to eighth grades, leading to a high demand to seek options. However, the unions prioritized their power over student learning and pointed fingers at the schools' failures on lack of funding rather than addressing systemic issues. WSJ reports union leaders hold significant influence over Illinois lawmakers, who have received substantial campaign contributions from teachers' unions.