October saw a former Chicago Public Schools CEO plead guilty to wire fraud and several other instances of criminal charges and civil lawsuits against public officials, as well as crony deals between businesses and government.

The residential-center horror stories demonstrate that corruption in government often hurts the most vulnerable among us. It also shows that exposing those injustices can lead to change.

On Oct. 2, the Lake County Federation of Teachers, or LCFT, began a public-employee union shutdown of Waukegan Unit School District 60 schools, which serve 16,138 students. In the wake of the strike, the Waukegan community is dealing with a dramatic disruption to their lives, with closed schools and parents struggling to find childcare and...