Two suburban Catholic schools to close months after scholarship tax credit program expires, archdiocese says
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Two west suburban Catholic grade schools will close this summer, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Thursday, citing an “overwhelming financial cliff” after the loss of a state tax credit scholarship program for school choice.
St. Frances of Rome School in Cicero and St. Odilo School in Berwyn, two pre-K to eighth grade private schools, will close their doors in June after the conclusion of the academic year.
School and church leaders said more than half of students at the schools rely on the program to attend. Between the two schools, 164 students attended through the tax credit scholarship program, the archdiocese said, and the schools have been open for a combined 196 years.
Invest in Kids grant money goes toward covering a student’s tuition. Student tuition covers only a portion of funds that Catholic schools in the archdiocese need to operate, the Office of Catholic Schools said. Spending varies based on the individual school, but they rely on donations and subsidies from parishes, among other channels, to round out spending budgets.
“More than half the students at our two schools rely on these scholarships. These are hardworking families who want a Catholic education for their children,” said the Rev. Bartholomew Juncer, pastor of St. Odilo School.
An annual report for the Invest in Kids scholarship program is released by the state in March each year for the previous academic year. The report includes the number of students in the program, how many students attend each school and student demographics. During the 2022-23 school year, the tax credit scholarship allowed 13 students to attend St. Frances of Rome and 27 students to attend St. Odilo.
The program expired in November after state lawmakers adjourned during the final week of the General Assembly’s last session without taking up a proposal to extend it beyond Dec. 31. Several Catholic school leaders worried in the fall that schools would be at a risk of closing if the program expired.
Invest in Kids prompted fierce debate over the merits of what some equate to the politically volatile school choice voucher program. While supporters say the tax credit gave children in low-income families a shot at a better education, opponents argued it failed to adequately benefit those kids and chipped away at public education.
The Office of Catholic Schools in the archdiocese said conversations occurred after the program expired on what the future looked like for schools with kids attending through the tax credit program.
Betty Paz, a St. Frances mother for over 20 years and vice president of the school’s parent association, said parents received no previous communication that the school could potentially close.
“We have a very strong commitment with parents and there was no communication that was shared with any of us,” Paz said. “And as we’ve learned more, this has been a topic of discussion for a few months, and it was never shared with any of the families.”
Baz added that while her seventh grade daughter, Sophia, is not attending on scholarship, the tuition for other Catholic schools in the area is at least $1,000 more and not as affordable for the family.
The Rev. Radek Jaszczuk, pastor of St. Frances of Rome School, said the loss of tax credit scholarships made the school unsupportable financially.
“While we have navigated tight budgets in the past, the loss of the scholarship program has created an insurmountable gap,” Jaszczuk said in the news release.
Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which has viewed the scholarship program as a disinvestment in public education, said taxpayer dollars should be given to public schools and not diverted to private institutions.
“We’re very clear that we support public accommodations for the many, not private schools for the few,” Potter said. “Certainly, if wealthy donors want to create scholarships, they can give that money directly to students and families that prefer to send their children to those places.”
Although the Invest in Kids Act required the Illinois State Board of Education to create an annual report on the learning gains of students receiving scholarships, the jury is out on the program’s results. Such a report has yet to be released, according to a spokesperson for the State Board of Education, citing COVID-19 as the source of the delay.
Families at the schools have been encouraged to enroll in the two remaining archdiocesan schools in the area, St. Leonard School in Berwyn and Our Lady of Charity School in Cicero.
Across the archdiocese, 5,000 low-income families attend Catholic schools through the scholarship program, which provides more than $25 million in aid, the archdiocese said.
Greg Richmond, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago school system, said Catholic schools are academically strong and have support among families, but he urged state lawmakers to reconsider extending the tax credit scholarship program to help keep the schools’ doors open.
“In this situation, trying to sustain four schools would have jeopardized all of them in the future,” Richmond said in a release. “We are doing all that we can to keep our schools open, but the loss of the scholarship program will hurt. These may not be the last closures in our archdiocese.”
Invest in Kids was signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017. It gave individuals and corporations a 75% tax credit, capped at $1 million, on donations to private school scholarships. Total annual credits were capped at $75 million. Various nonprofits process the applications and distribute the money.
A spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the governor would review any bill that passed to his desk.
“Advocates who supported the voucher program could not get the necessary votes to pass a bill. If their efforts are successful in the future the Governor will review the legislation, just like he does for all the bills that come to his desk,” the statement said.
