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DNA Info: Hundreds Join Labor Day March For $15 Minimum Wage
Hospital staff and medical service employees in Chicago joined the Fight for $15 in a massive Labor Day march from Pilsen to Downtown.
Hundreds of workers in the Service Employees International Union demonstrated Monday against what they say are unlivable wages for underpaid dietary aides, nurses’ assistants and transporters in the city’s hospital industry, as well as others who make below $15 an hour.
Chicago Tribune: Information literacy lost: Most CPS schools no longer have librarians
Students in three out of four Chicago Public Schools won’t have access to a librarian this fall — one result of years of budget cuts. The district has budgeted for fewer than a third as many librarians in 2017-18 as it did in 2012, when nearly every school library was staffed.
The district budgeted for about 454 librarians in 2013, but only 139 for the 2017-18 school year, according to CPS data.
Chicago Sun-Times: Ahead of first day of school, Emanuel brags about CPS graduation rate
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday struck a triumphant — and defiant — tone about the coming school year in Chicago, touting gains in Chicago Public Schools and a historic school-funding compromise that has partially stabilized the school district’s finances after three years of fiscal drama.
Speaking at South Shore International College Prep High School the day before the start of the new school year, Emanuel touted the latest CPS graduation numbers — which showed increases in every demographic group — and to pledge a school year unmarred by midyear budget cuts.
Chicago Tribune: For the first time in years, CPS classes start with a hint of optimism
Something’s missing from the first day of classes at Chicago Public Schools this year: an immediate source of tension.
There’s no labor clash to suck up the oxygen, with the Chicago Teachers Union securing a contract last October minutes before a threatened strike. Pressure on the district’s finances has subsided, for now, and the annual budget isn’t again dependent on political promises after state lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner reached an accord to overhaul the state education funding model.
Chicago Tribune: Why a later start to the school day could pump $1 billion into Illinois' economy
If school districts throughout the state moved starting times to 8:30 a.m. so middle and high school students could sleep longer, Illinois’ economy would gain $1 billion within five years, according to a study by the Rand Corp.
The state, along with others throughout the country, would benefit from fewer car crashes involving sleep-deprived adolescents, and from students performing better in school, going to college, and earning more in their careers, the study said.
News-Gazette: Education compromised?
What’s fair for one — the Chicago school district — should be fair for all — the rest of the school districts in Illinois’ 102 counties.
There’s a lot to dislike in the new compromise K-12 education financial formula law that passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support and was signed into law last week by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
That’s why the groundbreaking legislation — one that adopts an evidence-based model that ensures lower-income schools get increased state aid — was described as compromise legislation. Getting something required giving something.
Illinois Homepage: Manufacturers asking for their reforms
Now that lawmakers passed a budget and new school funding formula, one group wants its reforms on the to-do list.
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) wants lawmakers to return to finish hashing out worker’s comp reform. It was left out of the budget after hours of negotiations.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago set to raise airport workers' pay, clear path to a union
Edith Alvarenga has spent the past 12 years picking up trash, sweeping up crumbs and mopping up spills — and occasional bodily fluids — that passengers leave behind on airplanes. And she loves it.
She loves that nearly everyone at O’Hare Airport knows her. She loves helping passengers, especially Spanish-speaking travelers, when they aren’t sure where to go. She loves seeing people arriving and departing, which makes her feel like she is traveling herself.
Peoria Journal-Star: Peoria golf employees living in limbo
For better than two months, Peoria Park District golf employees have lived in a state of limbo, unsure of their employment future.
The eight full-time workers, one full-time golf professional, two contracted golf pros and part-time staff have spent anxious weeks wondering whether they will be retained if GolfVisions takes over management of the golf system from the park district.
Peoria Journal-Star: Peoria councilwoman revisits vehicle license idea to help balance city budget
At Large City Councilwoman Beth Jensen has an idea to help fill the city budget gap — have Peoria adopt an annual motor vehicle license.
Jensen raised the issue in 2015 when the city was working on its previous two-year budget but the City Council voted down the measure 6-3.
Belleville News-Democrat: Highland in peril unless police, firefighters get new home
Danger! Large portions of Highland are blighted to the point that they are a “menace to public health, safety and welfare.”
The best way to save residents and visitors from certain doom is to construct a new building for the police, fire and ambulance folks.
Huh?
The Southern: Independent federal report on Cairo details civil rights violations, inadequate housing conditions and HUD oversight failures
A federal report concerning strife-battered Cairo details years of civil rights violations against black residents, inadequate and segregated public housing conditions for low-income families, and government failures at all levels, including the miscarriage of their oversight function by Housing and Urban Development officials.
The author of the independent review, published by a federally sanctioned commission, describes it as an attempt to provide clarity as to what has gone wrong in Illinois’ southernmost city that sits between two major rivers — and once held such promise it was believed possible it could rival Chicago. The intended goal of the review is to help the city understand its past so that it can move forward in a constructive manner, the report states.