“Imagine community schools It’s easy if you try No academics to restrain us Above us, every other child. “Imagine all the students Livin’ out this lie Ah-hah-ha-ha-ha…” You may say Stacy Davis Gates is a dreamer, but she’s not the only one. The Chicago Teachers Union will make the district use a flawed school model....
Several bills that enhance Tier 2 state worker pension benefits, reduce retirement ages, allow for large end-of-career lump-sum payments and other pension sweeteners are moving through the Illinois General Assembly. They appear to be heading for a vote.
One Chicago resident is petitioning to give people the power to recall Chicago’s mayor. He needs more than 56,000 fellow voters to agree before it can be placed on the November ballot.
In Chicago and Cook County, law enforcement leadership and the court systems are failing women, especially domestic violence victims. Black women are disproportionately impacted. Leadership is desperately needed where incompetence now rules.
The Chicago Teachers Union hosted a press conference to begin contract negotiations at one of the sustainable community schools it wants to replicate 180 times. The Ellen H. Richards Career Academy has zero students proficient in reading or math.
Job gains in Illinois’ metropolitan areas were off to a slow start in 2024. Six areas remain behind where they were before the pandemic.
Illinois employment growth lagged the nation and neighboring states in March 2024. Unemployment was third highest in the U.S.
Chicago Public Schools’ 20 ‘sustainable community schools’ perform worse on average than other Chicago public schools in reading and math, absenteeism, graduation rates and more. The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding 180 more of the failing schools.
The Chicago Teachers Union prides itself as a leader in “bargaining for the common good” – unionspeak for contract demands related to its political agenda rather than teachers’ wages and benefits. This year’s negotiations could reverberate across the nation.
Chronic absenteeism has been bad across the nation since the pandemic, but in Chicago it’s worse. That hurts students’ futures and the city’s wellbeing.
This edition of The Policy Shop is by Director of Fiscal and Economic Research Bryce Hill. The Illinois Policy Institute was very clear about just how wrong Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was to push a hike in the real estate transfer tax to generate $100 million to address homelessness and affordable housing. Bad idea, with great potential...
“What’s really held Englewood back as a community is there’s not a lot of male mentors. A lot of us grew up without fathers and we don’t really have a positive male role model to look up to. When you take that away, we end up on the street or in jail.”
A new survey of economic indicators ranks Illinois 48th in the nation on 15 measures. High taxes, slow economic growth, people moving away and high public debt all pushed the state down.