(The Center Square) – As test scores continue to drop in Illinois' public schools, a home educator in Chicago is encouraging parents to consider other options.
Latasha Fields has been a home educator for 18 years. She said those that can home school should home school.
“Home schooling has a methodology where we build a support system. And so for those that want to home school, even if you’re a single parent, no matter your socioeconomic status, we believe you can do it. Because if we rally together, we can do it,” Fields said.
Fields said that when you look at proficiency in reading and math, there is no reason to encourage public education in the state of Illinois.
“Our taxes are continuing to increase, but our children’s academic proficiency is continuing to decline,” Fields said.
Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and from the Northwest Evaluation Association has shown declining test scores for students in public schools across the nation since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chicago Public Schools students have seen more dramatic drops in performance. The Illinois State Board of Education reported that reading proficiency scores for CPS students have dropped 63% since 2012. Math scores have dropped 78%.
Financial help may be available for parents who want to send their children to private schools.
Last year, the Illinois General Assembly failed to keep the Invest in Kids school choice scholarship tax credit program available to low-income students and their families. Fields said that many schools offer scholarships to families, even though the Invest in Kids Act is no longer in effect.
“They still can try, because I know a lot of Catholic schools, a lot of private Christian schools, they are working with parents. And so parents need to seek out those choices wholeheartedly, because there are other funds available,” Fields said.
Big Shoulders Fund serves 20,000 students and 72 schools in the Chicago region, including Northwest Indiana. Other scholarship providers in the Chicago area include the Archdiocese of Chicago, Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation, Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, HighSight, and LINK Unlimited Scholars.
The Catholic Diocese of Peoria’s John Lancaster Spalding Scholarship fund offered $700,000 in scholarships for the 2023-24 school year.
The Diocese of Rockford offers the Bishop Arthur J. O’Neill Scholarship Endowment. Rockford Christian Schools offer the Tuition Assistance Program.
Other scholarship providers include the Catholic Educational Foundation in the Diocese of Joliet, the Diocese of Belleville and the Children’s Tuition Fund. Many individual schools across the state also offer tuition assistance.
Fields said public school is not a quality choice any longer in Chicago, in Illinois or across the country.
“It is very horrible right now. It’s unconscionable the things that they’re doing. The sexualization, the grooming, the gender ideology: all those things that are in the public school system,” Fields explained.
Fields said parents send their children to school for reading, writing and arithmetic.
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