The Save My Scholarship campaign has issued a press release in response to the flawed study conducted by WestEd for the Illinois State Board of Education comparing test scores of Tax Credit Scholarship students vs. public school students. As stated in the press release:
“…analysts failed to compare low-income Tax Credit Scholarship recipients to their low-income counterparts in Illinois public schools. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) makes testing data readily available to sort by income levels, but researchers instead compared low-income scholarship recipients to all Illinois public school students, rendering the results meaningless because they lack proper context. In fact, low income Tax Credit Scholarship recipients actually outperform their low-income counterparts enrolled in public schools in nearly every category according to ISBE’s own data.”
Contrary to what the report to ISBE states, the Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship program has benefitted numerous students and families and should be reinstated this spring.