Public schooling in Chicago is often tumultuous, but it has been especially so under COVID-19, with unions repeatedly stymieing efforts to re-open schools. Chicago has basically been the national poster child for union obstruction of in-person learning. That said, people in many Illinois districts were frustrated with being told what education they could – and could not – have. Which made what Gov. J.B. Pritzker was recently proposing remarkable: shrinking, not expanding, the state’s small school choice program.

Thankfully, there is good news: Legislation was passed last week halting Pritzker’s effort. Unfortunately, the program has been spared for just one more year.

To understand who has the power in Chicago education, just listen to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who described the Chicago Teachers Union as aspiring “beyond being a union, and maybe being something akin to a political party.” Or outgoing CPS Chief Executive Officer Janice Jackson, who lamented in her resignation announcement that parents should “be in the driver’s seat” but are shoved aside by the union.

While Chicago may be the worst Illinois case of powerless families, feelings of helplessness have been high elsewhere. A November Chicago Tribune piece chronicled the situation. As Evan Williamson, who ran for the School District 70 board out of frustration with remote-only instruction, said, “All summer, we were told the plan was to start full steam ahead, but then the board reversed course. I’m running for the school board because I think parents should have had a choice.”

What COVID-19 has revealed to just about every American family is that they, not districts of special interests, should be in control of their children’s education.

Of course, families need choice not only because of the pandemic. Just as all children respond differently to in-person and online education, and have varying health challenges and tolerances for risk, they also learn math differently, need more or less strict discipline policies, and more.

Despite the basic reality of diversity highlighted by the pandemic, Gov. Pritzker wanted to slash the state’s Invest in Kids Scholarship Tax Credit, a lifeline empowering families to leave schools that do not work well for their children and access ones that do. The program is already capped at $75 million, less than 1 percent of what the state spends on public school districts.

Gov. Pritzker, lumping Invest in Kids in with “corporate loopholes,” proposed reducing by almost half the tax credit that individuals and businesses get for donating to scholarship funds.

Far from cronyism, the program is targeted to lower-income kids. According to Empower Illinois, which distributes roughly 75% of the scholarship funds, the average income of families with which it works is $38,000. Also, 49 percent are Black or Hispanic, and 68 percent qualify for federal free or reduced-price meals. And Illinoisans want more choice, with an estimated 26,000 currently waiting for a scholarship.

Perhaps lawmakers perceiving this demand is a major reason that Pritzker’s proposal failed to pass, and the program was extended to 2023.

That said, far from just sparing the program for a year, the right thing to do is put it on a permanent footing, so that families can be confident it will be there for them. Then they and schools can make long-term plans, and family empowerment can expand.

Research supports extending choice. Most top-quality studies have found positive test effects for participants, usually at much less cost than public schools. Perhaps even more powerful, while critics often pit choice against public school students, 25 of 27 studies have found that the more competition public schools face, the better they do. A March 2021 University of Arkansas study found that more educational freedom in states had a positive association with academic achievement.

Of course, test scores do not capture all—or even most—things people want out of education, and private schools especially excel in non-test outcomes. Several studies of choice programs have found large attainment effects: greater high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion. Private schools have also repeatedly been found to create more knowledgeable and tolerant citizens.

Perhaps the greatest testament to the need to expand choice is that it is being pursued by numerous states in what some are calling the “Year of School Choice.” Since January, legislation to create or expand choice has been introduced in more than 30 states, and such long-time holdouts as West Virginia and Kentucky have passed laws creating brand new programs. Many others are expanding existing efforts.

The pandemic has made it obvious, perhaps even to Illinois policymakers: families need more, not less, educational freedom.