GLEN CARBON, Illinois — High school sophomore Isabella Benvenuto said her performance in school and her mental health both depend on how much one-on-one time she can get with her teachers.
"I don't do good in like big school environments," she said. "Smaller schools help me like be able to focus more."
She attends classes at Father McGivney Catholic High School in Glen Carbon where the average class size includes 14 or 15 students. Class sizes at the public schools in town are roughly twice as large.
She's one of thousands of Illinois school students who may find out this fall if they can continue their private education at no cost to them. A scholarship program that gives donors a tax break for sponsoring kids' tuition costs is set to expire before the end of the next school year if the legislature doesn't extend it.
"I'd have to transfer to public," she said. "Not saying that would be a bad thing, but it just won't suit me best because I don't like teacher interactions with students in bigger schools. I get like a lot of anxiety. Peer pressure anxiety would happen a lot to me."
5 On Your Side met Benvenuto in the halls of her high school after her single mother Jolene Sussman dropped her off.
Sussman, a disabled Army veteran, said the tuition benefit has helped her navigate the impact of inflation.
"Everything adds up," she said. "Everything. Rent, food."
She's already looking ahead at her finances, wondering how she'll make ends meet if she has to add the cost of her daughter's tuition to her stack of medical bills from 13 surgeries.
"It would be, if not impossible … extremely, extremely devastating financially," she said.
Sussman urged lawmakers to consider the financial impact families like hers would face if they don't extend the program.
"It's already in effect. It's already working," she said. "It's not affecting public schools. So why do we need to delete it whenever it works? Because all you're doing is taking away from our future."
Statewide, more than five thousand donors got tax breaks for giving more than 75 million dollars combined, according to a report from the Illinois Department of Revenue. The contributions provided enough funding to pay for tuition for nearly 10 thousand other students.
"This is not just a small population that's being positively impacted by this program," Father McGivney High School Principal Joe Lombardi said.
He said the program has so far helped 85 kids get into the Glen Carbon private school so far. Across the state, demand is growing. A waiting list of kids hoping to get their foot in the door at a private school near them has grown to roughly 26,000.
"It tells me that there's a need," Lombardi said. "It tells me that people are looking for ways to get the best for their student."
Benvenuto is too young to vote, but she recently began reaching out personally to lobby her elected officials.
"It's a lot easier for me to talk to adults than it is for kids my age," she said.
However, the feedback she's received so far suggests her cause may face an uphill climb at the statehouse.
"They don't want to do it because they want more funding to go towards public schools, which is fine," she said. "I almost agreed to go to public. But the reason I chose this type of school was because of the smaller class sizes."
The tax break, which provides 75 cents on the dollar for donors, doesn't reduce or diminish any funding levels for public schools. The loss in state tax revenue impacts the overall General Revenue Fund, but school funding levels are determined separately through an evidence-based school funding formula, which was approved in 2017 and has been fully funded in every state budget since.
The program got a boost from Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday.
"I will support it if it comes to my desk to extend the program in whatever form," he said.
However, his pledge to sign a bill would first require the House and Senate to take action.
"When they vote against this, or if they don't choose to extend it, they're actually harming kids," Lombardi said.
Benvenuto said if the program expires, she'll pack up her locker and enroll in public school.
She said her plea to politicians is to consider the impact such an abrupt transition would have on their own families.
"Think of if their child had to go through this," she said.
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