March 26, 2018

Candidates Who Support Charter Public Schools Prevail

Thirteen out of 15 candidates endorsed by INCS Action PAC won their races. Primary election results promising for the 64,000 Illinois charter school families and thousands of students on waitlists.

INCS Action, Illinois’ only statewide advocacy organization focused on improving access to quality charter public schools for Illinois families, celebrates bipartisan victories in the Illinois General Assembly. INCS Action’s affiliated organizations, INCS Action PAC and INCS Action Independent Committee (IC), invested in races for the State Senate and State House of Representatives and assisted many candidates to victory.

“Last night, Illinois voters showed that access to high-quality charter public schools is an electoral priority,” noted John Rowe, chairman emeritus of Exelon and INCS Action board member. “Voters across the state, in Democratic and Republican areas, nominated candidates who support a parent’s right to choose the best school for their child. We will continue to support such candidates and look forward to redoubling our effort in the fall election.”

Special interest groups claiming to support children and families across the state spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat candidates who support educational equity, opportunity, and parents’ rights to access the best school options for their children. INCS Action responded by helping to protect and support those incumbents and candidates who believe that every child has a right to high-quality education, and voters agreed.

“We are thrilled that voters understand the impact of their voice. They have chosen to stand with us in the fight for educational equity for every family in the state of Illinois,” said Andrew Broy, President of INCS Action. “This is INCS Action’s third electoral cycle, and we are proud of the gains we have made. We are committed to the fight for great schools and will continue to stand with elected officials who put students’ needs first.”

For the past 20 years, charter public schools have contributed to the success of districts, promoting innovation, and eliminating the bureaucracy that prevents sustainable progress. Chicago charter public school students are at the top of the pack, enrolling in four-year colleges nearly twice as often as their non-charter high school peers.
 

ABOUT INCS ACTION
INCS Action and its affiliated organizations, INCS Action PAC and INCS Action IC, were created in 2014 with the mission to engage the charter school community in the legislative and political process, grow the coalition of charter public school supporters and activists, and educate Illinois public officials on the impact of charter public schools in the lives of families and in communities across the state. For more information on INCS Action, visit www.incsaction.org.

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