Say No To Federal School Vouchers

1/27/26

The League of Women Voters of Illinois joined a coalition of organizations on January 27 in delivering a letter to Governor Pritzker calling on him to act on his values and commit to opting Illinois out of a new federal school voucher program.

LWVIL President Becky Simon warned, “School vouchers will spend our public dollars in ways that are not transparent, and voucher programs lack the accountability and oversight provided by public school systems. As bad as Illinois’ now-defunct state voucher program was, this federal program will likely be far worse.”

It’s time for our Governor to firmly refuse this toxic school privatization scheme for our State. Having seen vouchers before here in Illinois, we know they are simply bad education policy: hurting equity and funding discrimination without improving academic outcomes.

We call on all public school supporters to join our efforts and call Governor Pritzker to ask him to make a public commitment that Illinois will NOT participate in the federal voucher program because of the grave harm the program would bring to Illinois’ public schools.

Read coverage of this critical issue by the Chicago Tribune and WBEZ Chicago.