Offering tax breaks to encourage donations tends to be smart politics. Prioritizing one class of beneficiaries invites accusations of playing favorites.

That assertion ended my July 17 column comparing the late Invest In Kids Illinois private school scholarship program and a new federal program running on ostensibly the same parameters. The issue is freshly relevant as public school advocates have staged media events this week asking Gov. JB Pritzker to opt out of the federal program, joining governors in a few other states.

Launched in 2017, Invest In Kids created up to $75 million per year in scholarships by giving individual and corporate donors 75 cents of state income tax credit per dollar donated (up to $1 million each year per filer), which impacted 9,500 students. Lawmakers opted not to renew the program in 2023.

According to Forbes, the federal program applies to people earning as much as 300% of their local median income who “can donate up to $1,700 to an eligible educational nonprofit and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. The donation would be awarded in the form of a scholarship by private schools to fund tuition, boarding, books and other expenses for students.”

Those pushing Pritzker to opt in make the logical argument that federal tax credits don’t affect the Illinois budget. Opponents who have always stood against tax dollars funding private education challenge the new federal program on the same grounds.

Both programs have the same fundamental challenge for people willing to look beyond the public/private school issue: they’re too narrow to be considered fair.

What if I wanted to donate $1,700 to a local food pantry? Or to my utility’s heating assistance fund? Many people give more than $1,700 to their church each year, even those who don’t run schools. I graduated from a private college in Iowa that would love me to be a regular donor.

Last summer, Congress significantly changed charitable giving rules (Kiplinger has a good primer at tinyurl.com/DonationChanges2026), so many of us may be in for some surprises when preparing federal returns. One thing that won’t change is that people of all political persuasions can usually identify at least one government line item they’d prefer their dollars not fund.

The new Illinois Gives Tax Credit, effective in 2025, incentivizes up to $100 million over five years by offering all Illinoisans a 25% state income tax credit for any donation to the permanent endowment fund of one of the state’s 35 community foundations.

It’s still not a dollar-for-dollar credit for any charitable contribution, but by casting a wider net than just private schools, the effort is more politically popular and likely has longer legs than more targeted attempts.

Will Congress copy that idea, too?

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.