Jim Murphy

“In 1989, I founded the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund to help kids escape their failing schools. I dream of a Chicago where every single kid, regardless of income and background, can pick the school that works best for them.”

“Each year, the fund helps about 500 disadvantaged Chicago kids get into schools that are safer and better for them. 100% of our recipients have graduated high school, and 87% go on to get a college degree with full scholarships.”

“Their stories are amazing. I remember one of the kids, O’Donovan, became a student at Loyola Academy with my own daughter.”

“One day I asked my daughter if she had met this kid. I wanted to know how he was doing. She said, ‘Dad, do you mean O.D.? We just elected him president of the freshman class!’”

“He went on to be president all four years, first time it had ever been done in the school’s history. Now he has a master’s degree from DePaul and built a thriving career in fundraising at Princeton University.”

“He grew up in a low-income, single-parent home on the South Side of Chicago. Before this scholarship, he had been in public schools his whole life. In Chicago, that’s a failing system. Only 11% of Black students in Chicago can read at grade level.”

“The loss of Invest in Kids was a blow. There should be a groundswell of disgust from Illinois voters, that their politicians would vote against scholarships for kids in need. That’s why I’m working so hard to make sure people know about the Educational Choice for Children Act.”

“ECCA is a national school choice bill. Every state in the country would have access to these funds. Illinois needs to take advantage of this massive opportunity.”

“Illinois is the only state to lose a school choice program rather than expand one. If we can turn that around at the federal level, it would be a huge win for students in the state.”

“For all the good Invest in Kids did, this is even better. Invest in Kids was a state tax break. This would be a federal tax break, which is the higher tax. Also, Invest in Kids only credited donors for 75 cents on the dollar, so there was still a portion that they had to just give away. This is 100% – it’s simply choosing to give that money directly to kids in need rather than to the federal government.”

“I’m confident that if ECCA passes, we will be able to fund 50,000 scholarships averaging $10,000 each to help kids like O’Donovan. I’m begging Illinoisans to call their senators and representatives in support.”

“It doesn’t take any money away from public schools. All the money comes from donors. It’s just incentivized by a tax break. Maybe you’re not a fan of something the federal government is doing; you can donate to these scholarships and that money goes to kids in need instead of that.”

“Right now in Chicago we spend $30,000 per student in our public schools. Meanwhile, archdiocese schools have $8,100 tuition and they’ve got 40,000 seats they can fill.”

“There were nearly 10,000 low-income students relying on Invest in Kids when it was killed by Chicago Teachers Union lobbying. This could help all of them, plus the thousands of families who were languishing on the waiting list when the program was cut, and who knows how many more.”

“I’m asking Chicagoans, when the time comes, be ready to redirect your federal tax dollars to scholarships. We can make a direct difference for these low-income students.”

Jim Murphy
Founder, Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund
Chicago, Illinois