At a time when government is heaping debt on our children to pay in the future, the Illinois House had an opportunity this week to improve the future for some of our state’s most vulnerable children. Lawmakers considered a landmark bill that would’ve given students a chance to escape some of the worst schools in the Chicago Public School system.

We’ve heard the phrase “too big to fail” often over the last year. The Chicago Public School system is simply “too big to succeed.” With more than 400,000 students and a $5.3 billion budget, CPS cannot possibly meet the needs of every student, especially those students living in the most poverty-ridden and dangerous communities in the city.

A bill that I co-sponsored with Senator James Meeks would have provided a voucher to more than 20,000 families whose children are trapped in the lowest performing grade schools in Chicago. A parent could use the voucher to enroll their child in a private or parochial school they otherwise could not afford. The cost of each voucher would have been significantly less than the debt burden each child now owes in the State of Illinois.

Despite all the benefits of this program, the Illinois House failed to pass this bill. The entrenched interests, determined to protect the status quo at the expense of children, won the day. These are the very same special interests that have helped create Illinois’ massive debt crisis by driving up benefit and retirement promises to public employees over the last few decades. The very same groups that refuse any reform that might help our state’s fiscal condition. They very same groups that claim to care about children, yet balk at any new program that might weaken their power base.

Once again, the bureaucracy succeeded and thousands of Chicago schoolchildren lost an opportunity for a better education and better future. It’s unfortunate that some lawmakers easily put our children in debt, yet refuse to invest in them.

State Senator Dan Cronin
(R-21), Elmhurst