AFN spoke with one activist who says the measure is revealing about Democrats.
"They think they own your kids," Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at American Culture Project, told AFN. "They came after school choice last year and now they are gunning for the homeschoolers as well to try to strip them of their freedom to raise their own children at home."
For those not up to speed on this story, the Illinois Democrats had a committee hearing in the House where they advanced a bill on a party line vote and sent it to the House floor.
The committee vote was 8- 4, and it came after tens of thousands of people registered in opposition to the bill.
"The Illinois Democrats didn't care. They still advance the bill anyway," said DeAngelis, who wrote a related Op-ed in Wall Street Journal. "This also shows that school choice is not the problem when it comes to authoritarian overreach in private and home schools, because Illinois got rid of school choice and now, they're coming after homeschooling."
Illinois phased out its “Invest in Kids” school chose program at the end of 2023.
The program had been available for more than 9,600 low-income students but drew fierce pushback from teachers unions.
The majority of Invest in Kids scholarships awarded in its final year went to families of four with an annual income of $49,025, Illinois Policy reported.
DeAngelis encouraged homeschoolers and school choice advocates to "lock arms and push back against this authoritarian overreach" in the future.
"Hopefully some Democrats will defect on the issue in Illinois," said DeAngelis. "I don't have a lot of confidence in them, but there was a rally Thursday which included one Illinois Democrat state representative by the name of La Shawn Ford.”
Ford, of Chicago, has pointed out that the current bill, heavy-handed with homeschool restrictions, can actually increase criminalization.
“He said, ‘how can we criminalize parents for wanting to love their children?’” DeAngelis said.
The criminalization concern involves language in the bill that calls for a conviction, fine, and jail time for parents that do not file information about homeschooling efforts on time.
Will Estrada of Home School Legal Defense Association talked about that with AFN and pointed out that child protective services often comes in to take children when parents are in jail.
"So, I hope some more Democrats get on the right side of history like La Shawn Ford and lock arms with the Republicans to protect homeschooling freedom in the state of Illinois, because Democrats control both chambers of the legislature right now in Illinois. You’re going to need some Democrats to fight back," said DeAngelis. "If they don't, hopefully the Democrats will lose some seats over this issue because parents are upset."
