Brady Unveils Education Reform Package

Supports eliminating cap on charter schools, higher tuition tax credits, vouchers and abolishing the State Board of Education

 

Sen. Bill Brady, Republican Candidate for Governor, unveiled a comprehensive education reform package today to give parents a greater choice in their children’s education and to better prepare Illinois students for college educations and 21st Century vocations and careers.

“Just as Illinois is economically challenged today with jobs leaving the state, so are we educationally challenged by not giving our students greater opportunities to receive the best education possible,” said Brady.  “We must give our students a better education so they are ready and able to become productive members of our workforce.  We must innovate, build on success and eliminate barriers that serve the educational bureaucracy, not our students.”

Brady’s plan includes lifting the limit on charter schools, increasing tuition tax credits, empowering school boards and parents to enact voucher programs and giving high school students the opportunity to earn a community college associate’s degree before they graduate.

“We need to give local school districts, parents and students a greater voice in education,” said Brady.  “We need to work to ensure the greatest chance for success for every Illinois school and every Illinois student.”

“My plan to reform education in Illinois starts with a clean break from the rigid educational structure of today with the elimination of the State Board of Education,” said Brady of Bloomington.  “Doing so will give local school officials, teachers and parents a greater voice in the operation of their local schools.”  ?

“I will restructure our educational bureaucracy by creating a streamlined, efficient and smaller department truly accountable to the Governor and thereby the people of Illinois.  This downsized department under the Governor will administer the financial disbursement of resources, helping school districts in a way that will ensure more dollars go to the classroom and not to educational administration expense.” ?

Brady’s plan for greater parental involvement and greater student achievement includes:

• Eliminating the cap on charter schools in Illinois, allowing an unlimited number of charter schools to operate in Illinois at any given time.  Doing away with the cap would also lift the geographic constraints currently imposed on charter schools.  Current legislation limits the number of charter schools to 120 at one time — 70 in Chicago, 45 for the rest of the state and 5 devoted to re-enrolled high school drop-outs. 

 

• Increasing tuition tax credits by 50 percent a year.  As it stands now, an eligible Illinois household can receive a maximum $500 in education expense tax credits a year.

 

• Empowering school boards by action or parents by referendum to open their school district to vouchers, allowing state tax dollars to follow the student.  The voucher would be at a minimum level equal to the pupil state support of that school district.

 

• Allowing every high school student in Illinois the opportunity to achieve in their high school years a two-year associate degree through cooperative efforts between the state’s 49 community college districts and regional offices of education.  This would ensure students graduate with a better education and more prepared to pursue a higher education in a four-year institution or enter the workforce.

“For far too long, our state has fallen behind nationally and internationally,” said Brady.  “We have graduated students, in many cases, with a subpar education and a lack of skills needed for the workplace today.  We can accelerate our students’ chance at success with a program that integrates our secondary schools and our community colleges.”

Brady unveiled his plan at the Chicago International Charter School’s West Belden Campus, a K-8th grade institution in Chicago’s Austin-Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

“West Belden is a shining example of the educational opportunities Illinois children need and deserve,” said Brady, the only candidate with business and legislative experience.

Brady also reiterated his support for preserving the home school system.  ?

“As Governor, I will continue to ensure that parents who decide to school their children at home remain independent of state oversight and free of any bureaucratic requirements,” said Brady.  “I will do all I can to make Illinois the strongest supported home school state in the nation.”