State lawmakers failed to save the Invest in Kids program allowing nearly 10,000 low-income students to attend a school that better fit their needs. Now some of those schools are being forced to close and families are left with poor options.
The Chicago Teachers Union for decades pushed to elect the school board, but with their former employee in the mayor’s office they rather he choose most of the board for a little while longer.
Absenteeism rates among Hispanic students in Chicago Public Schools are chronically high. Proficiency in reading and math is low.
Chronic absenteeism rates among Illinois public school students increased after the pandemic-era school closures. Rates are even higher among low-income students, limiting their futures.
Chronic absenteeism rates are higher in Chicago than statewide, with 44% of low-income Chicago students missing at least 10% of their days in school.
With Invest in Kids scholarships expiring, four schools across Illinois already decided to close their doors for good. Futures for nearly 10,000 low-income students remain uncertain.
Seven states enacted new private school choice programs in 2023 and 11 states expanded existing programs. But Illinois killed its Invest in Kids tax-credit scholarship program, ending the only help for nearly 10,000 low-income students.
House Bill 4417 requires an annual “Workplace Readiness Week” in all Illinois high schools, which focuses not on getting kids ready for jobs but on the labor movement’s role in the workplace.
Chicago Public Schools Inspector General’s report showed 77,505 devices were lost or stolen during the 2021-2022 school year. At 36 schools, every single student device was gone.
The Chicago Board of Education is preparing to remove police officers from public high schools. Local School Councils already have the power to remove officers, but district leaders are taking away that local control.
Research shows income and adult literacy are strongly related. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show 20% of Illinois adults are “functionally illiterate.” Cook County’s rate is 25%.
Innovation can help Chicago Public Schools improve academic proficiency, but it requires breaking up the centralized power built by the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools. Local control can improve student outcomes.
The Illinois State Board of Education failed to publish diagnostic reports required by the Invest in Kids Act to track scholarship recipients’ progress starting in 2019. State lawmakers are letting the program expire without seeing a single report.
This edition of The Policy Shop is by Mailee Smith, senior director of labor policy and staff attorney. The Illinois General Assembly has departed Springfield to go eat turkey. Most of them should be eating crow. On Nov. 9 they made Illinois the only state in the nation to roll back school choice. State lawmakers...