City Colleges of Chicago

What you need to know about who’s running for Chicago mayor

By Joe Tabor, Perry Zhao
02/18/2023
Nine candidates are asking to be Chicago’s next mayor. The election is outside the normal election cycle, meaning voter turnout is low despite the mayor’s impact on crime, education, the economy and Chicagoans’ taxes. Here’s what to know about the nine candidates.

TAGS: Chicago

Each Illinois household on the hook for $56K in government-worker retirement debt

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
03/23/2017
In 2010, the unfunded debt related to pensions and retiree health care costs for local and state government workers across Illinois was $203 billion, the equivalent of more than $43,000 per household. In just six years, the total debt Illinois households are on the hook for has jumped to $56,000, or 31 percent. That’s a $13,000 increase for each household. Total unfunded debt for state and local governments in Illinois now totals $267 billion.

TAGS: GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, JRS: Judges’ Retirement System, pensions, SERS: State Employee Retirement System, SURS: State Universities Retirement System, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

The high graduation rates of Illinois’ lowest-performing schools

02/15/2014
Here’s a startling statistic: despite having only 11 percent of students performing at grade level in math and reading, Illinois’ lowest-performing high schools graduate more than 60 percent of their students within four years. And only 6 percent of these students are college-ready according to the ACT. All of this indicates that the state’s lowest-performing...