Chicago Public Schools couldn’t give a teen the right education, but scholarships did. Now state leaders can OK a federal program to help every Illinois student.
Joy Love’s family made sacrifices to enroll her in a sought-after charter school in downtown Chicago, but it still wasn’t working for her, so she joined over 9,000 students who left the Chicago Public Schools system between 2024 and 2025.
“I had a family member who went there, so that choice was partly a family thing,” Joy said.
Joy’s neighborhood school was never discussed as an option: Manley Career Academy High School has an enrollment of 124 students, only 3.6% of juniors could read proficiently but 43% graduate. Getting into the charter school was a relief, but it meant a bus commute of more than an hour each way.
That was complicated by Joy’s responsibilities for her sister.
“My mom works two jobs, so I have to get my little sister ready in the morning,” she said. “That’s a responsibility I’ve had for the past three years.”
Joy was committed to getting a good education, so she worked hard at the charter school during her freshman year. By her sophomore year, she began to feel her efforts weren’t yielding the results they should.
“Math is my favorite subject, but we would learn one concept and then keep going over and over it,” Joy said. “At some point I realized, ‘I’m not learning anything.’”
She also said the environment outside of class was distracting. “My sophomore year we had a student protest. I don’t even know exactly what it was about, but it made me look at the school differently.”
Joy couldn’t help but think of the small private school she had often passed in her childhood. Chicago Hope Academy was just two miles from her house.
“The middle school that I graduated from would talk about Hope a lot. I think in my heart, I always wanted to go here. So, when I realized I did not want to graduate from my school at the time, I just thought, ‘Hope, Hope, Hope.’”
She asked her mother to reconsider, and her mother agreed. When fall came around, she started her junior year at the private Christian school.
“Things are so much easier now. My sister goes to school right by me, so I can drive myself to school and it’s less than 10 minutes away.”
But even though Hope is one of the most affordable private schools in the city, enrollment would not have been possible without a scholarship.
“The cost to educate a student here is $18,000 a year. The average family pays $3,000 a year. Joy and students like her receive about $15,000 a year in financial aid that we fundraise,” said Scout Muzikowski, Chicago Hope Academy’s director of admissions and student life.
That fundraising used to be aided by the state’s Invest in Kids program, which would provide a 75% tax break for donations toward scholarships. In 2024, state legislators killed the program under pressure from teachers unions and with nearly $1.5 million in their campaign cash.
“Invest in Kids used to be about 25% of our budget. We have a really good fundraising team that’s working hard to fill the gap, but without a tax credit usually what that means is that people have to donate less,” Muzikowski said.
The good news for Hope Academy and students such as Joy is similar scholarship funding could return to Illinois in 2027 through a federal tax credit. The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Program works the same way Invest in Kids did but would be a full credit up to $1,700 and apply to even more flexible kinds of school choice. Homeschooling families could use it for books. Public school families could use it for tutoring or extracurriculars.
The only catch is Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state leaders must opt in for Illinois students to take advantage. If they fail to join, Illinois donors will still receive the credit but the funds Illinois students should receive will instead go to students in other states.
The federal funds are a way for Joy and other Illinois students to escape dysfunctional schools or find ones that better fit their needs.
“I love that Hope challenges me. I want to be an electrician, and I’m in a trade class now where I get to experience it hands-on and learn more about it,” Joy said. “I know I’m going to be ready for it when I graduate.”
