Background/Footnotes: Charter schools became an option in 1996, when the legislature passed a bill allowing for the creation of up to 45 schools: 15 in Chicago, 15 in Chicago's suburbs, and 15 in the rest of the state. Any not-for-profit organization, including a school district, can sponsor a charter school.[1]

In 1996, then-Representative Peter Roskam (R-48) introduced the Educational Choice Act (House Bill 3533), a pilot school voucher program that would have provided vouchers worth up to $2,500 to low-income students.[2] The bill was approved in committee but did not receive a vote in the House.[3]

The following year, another Educational Choice Act (H.B. 991) was introduced to start a pilot choice program in Chicago. The voucher would have been worth the lesser of the cost of private school tuition or $2,500, and the program would have cost $5 million a year. The bill died in committee.[4]

Chicago first became a Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) "partner city" in 1998. The CSF matches funds raised by residents to fund private scholarships for low-income students to attend a school of choice.[5]

In 1997, Representative Kevin McCarthy (D-37) introduced H. B. 999, which would have provided parents a tax credit of up to $500 for education expenses, including tuition, books, and lab fees, for classes at public, private, or parochial schools. The legislature approved the bill, but then-Governor Jim Edgar, a Republican, vetoed it on January 2, 1998.[6]

A two-year study released in 1998 by the Special Task Force on Catholic Schools found that the Archdiocese of Chicago, which educates many poor children who are not Catholic, would have to close or downsize some of its 270 elementary schools in Cook and Lake Counties within a year unless it found new funding. The Archdiocese hoped, among other things, to find funds to increase teacher salaries to 75 percent of market value. At the time, teachers in Catholic schools earned about half as much as teachers in public schools. The Archdiocese had called on then-Governor-elect George Ryan to approve a voucher or tax credit program to help offset the costs of educating children.[7]  In 2000, the Catholic Conference of Illinois estimated that were 594 Catholic schools educating 212,285 children. These schools save Illinois $1.4 billion annually, which is what it costs to educate those students in public schools.[8]

In 1999, the state House and Senate approved the Educational Expenses Tax Credit plan (Senate Bill 1075). Signed into law on June 3, 1999, this law provides an annual tax credit of up to 25 percent of education-related expenses (including tuition, book fees, and lab fees) that exceed $250, up to a maximum of $500 per family.[9]

A poll of 1,000 Illinois residents commissioned by the Illinois Family Institute before adoption of the tax credit program found that 77 percent of respondents supported allowing parents and students to choose their schools. Over half believed that families should be able to use their per-student tax dollars at a school of choice. One-third said that tax money should be spent only at public schools authorized by the school board. A 1998 Metro Chicago Information Center survey found that 62 percent of respondents in Chicago supported vouchers for poor children. Over half supported authorizing students to use vouchers at religious schools.[10]

Nevertheless, a voucher plan (S.B. 329) introduced by Senator Dan Cronin (R-21) in 1999 was voted down in committee. The bill would have provided Educational Opportunity Grants of $2,000 to $3,000 for students in Chicago, East St. Louis, Joliet, Peoria, and Rockford to use at a school of choice, including religious schools.[11]

In 1999, the legislature enacted two charter school laws. S.B. 648 establishes a process by which 5 percent or more of the voters can present a petition to the Illinois State Board of Education, which would then direct the local board to allow a referendum. It also grants funds to school districts for the first three years after the establishment of a charter school and provides grants and loans to cover start-up costs for charter schools. The second bill, H.B. 230, allows school districts to enter into partnerships to set up charter schools.[12]

In July 1999, the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, alleging that the tax credit law violated the state prohibition against the establishment of religion. On December 7, 1999, Judge Loren P. Lewis dismissed the suit. Opponents of choice appealed the decision to the Appellate Court of the Fifth Judicial District, which upheld the Circuit Court's decision.[13] On April 4, 2001, the Appellate Court of Illinois for the Fifth Judicial District unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Illinois educational expenses tax credit law.[14]

A second lawsuit was filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court by a coalition of groups led by the Illinois Education Association, also challenging the program on state constitutional grounds. In April 2000, the circuit court judge dismissed the suit, emphasizing that the tax credit allows Illinois parents to keep more of their own money to spend on their children's education and does not involve the expenditure of public money.[15] Opponents appealed this decision to the Appellate Court of the Fourth Judicial District.

On April 21, 2001, the Appellate Court for the Fourth Judicial District also unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's 1999 tax credit law. "By creating the credit," Justice Rita Garman wrote for the three-judge panel, "the legislature has recognized that parents who send their children to private schools often do so at considerable expense to themselves and that they provide a benefit to the State treasury by relieving the State and local taxpayers of the expense of educating their children."[16] In two separate decisions in June 2001, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to reconsider the two district appeals court rulings. Since the plaintiffs did not raise First Amendment claims in either case, no appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was possible.[17]

Two choice bills were introduced during the 2001 legislative session. H.B. 3550, the Educational Choice Act, would have provided vouchers for educational expenses. H.B. 1010 would have amended the state's education tax credit program to mandate that the taxpayer provide the name of the school. The school also would have been subject to the testing, reporting, disciplinary, and enrollment rules of the local school board. Neither bill was passed.[18]

 

Two charter school bills were voted down by the legislature in early June 2001. S.B. 78 would have allowed Chicago to open an additional 15 schools above the current cap of 15. S.B. 36 would have increased the amount of charter grants and start-up loans.[19]

Several choice bills were introduced during the 2002 legislative session. H.B. 3550, first introduced in 2001, would have allowed vouchers for educational expenses. H.B. 1010 would have amended the existing tuition tax credit program by adding a provision that the taxpayer must state the name of the school for which the expense credit is claimed. The bill also would have subjected private schools to local school board requirements on testing, academic standards, reporting, graduation requirements, suspensions and expulsions, and student enrollment. Both bills died in a House committee.[20]

State Representative Joseph Lyons (D-19) and then-Representative Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-41) introduced the Educational Improvement Tax Credit bill, H.B. 4077, which would have authorized state income tax credits of up to $100,000 for corporations donating to scholarship organizations. Students from families with an income of less than $50,000 a year would have been eligible for the vouchers to attend a private school of choice. After debate and amendment, the bill died in committee.[21]

Another bill, S.B. 1240, would have raised the charter school cap in Chicago from 15 to 30. The addition of 15 schools would have come at a price, however, since the bill would have placed a two-year moratorium on contracting with for-profit management companies. It also would have required half of the teachers in urban charter schools to be certified by the 2006-2007 school year.[22] S.B. 1240 was passed by the Senate and House but died in conference.[23]

In 2002, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Illinois identified 179 elementary schools in Chicago that were not meeting state standards. The federal law requires that the district give each of the 125,000 students in the failing schools the option to transfer to a higher-performing school.

Chicago public school authorities planned to permit 29,000 students in only 50 of the schools to move into one of 90 higher-performing schools with about 2,900 open seats, leaving students at the remaining 129 failing schools eligible for after-school programs or tutoring. The plan further limited student options by restricting choices to schools no more than three miles from their home. In 70 of the 90 transfer-eligible schools, however, a majority of students had failed state tests during the previous year.[24] In the end, 1,900 students asked to be transferred.[25] The Chicago Tribune quoted Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as saying that allowing eligible students from all 129 eligible schools to transfer would cause "chaos in the system" and there was a "practical reality" that had to be dealt with.[26] (In 2004, a study conducted by the Chicago Board of Education would find that Chicago students who transferred schools under NCLB saw higher achievement gains than their peers who did not transfer.[27])

In 2003, State Senator Donne E. Trotter (D-17) introduced S.B.1135, which would eliminate the state's educational tax credit law at the end of the year. The bill died in committee.[28]

Illinois's charter school law was revised in April 2003 with the signing of S.B. 19, the Chicago Education Reform Act of 2003.[29] The law provides for the creation of 15 new charter schools in the city, but it also gives teachers more bargaining rights--making charter school advocates wary of the measure.[30]

In August 2004, the State Board of Education identified 23 schools that must show "dramatic" improvement by 2005 or be turned into charter schools or taken over by the state.[31]

In late spring 2004, the Chicago Board of Education conducted a study of choice students in the Chicago Public School system and found students' achievement increased after their move. The study reviewed academic performance of students who transferred public schools under the No Child Left Behind Act and found that not only did the academic achievement of the students improve after their transfer, but the schools to which they moved were not negatively affected. Students that remained in their new school improved their reading and math scores eight percent more than the "expected gain" in those subjects.[32]

State Senator Joseph M. Lyons (D-19) introduced H.B. 1577 in the 2005 session. Entitled the "Opportunity Scholarship Tax Act," the bill would provide $500 to Chicago families for tutoring services. The bill would also create a voucher program in Chicago that would offer families up to $3,500 to assist with tuition.[33] The bill is currently with the House Rules Committee.

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