Joliet

Ready for the Snow? Gauging Illinois’s Performance on a Critical Core Service

By Kate Campaigne Piercy
02/16/2010
In January 1979, a severe winter storm blasted Chicago. The city government failed to clear the roads of snow, which virtually shut down the metropolis for a week. The snow closed O’Hare International Airport for a record 42 hours. Drifts, many of them 12 feet high, blocked more than 1,400 of the city’s streets. An...

Gauging Illinois’s Performance on a Critical Core Service

01/31/2010
Residents of Illinois demand clear and safe roads. State and local agencies must budget and prepare for the winter season, and then perform up to certain standards when the snow comes. Otherwise, we risk losing money, time and lives.

Unsung Heroes: Charter Schools

By Collin Hitt
05/25/2009
The Issue Throughout Illinois, a new kind of public school has emerged: charter schools. The “charter school movement,” as it has been called, has been a success in Illinois.  Studies have consistently shown that charter schools routinely perform above the norm at comparable district schools.  To date, however, most of these studies of school performance...