A new study by the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Clinic found that limitations to fair housing are making segregation in the Chicago metropolitan area worse.
Early childhood education advocates say the state's budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that passed in the state House and Senate last week is a partial victory. Progress Illinois takes a closer look at how education will be funded under the new budget.
By the end of June 2014, more than two acres of vacant land in
Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood will be transformed into an
affordable housing development with services for veterans and their families.
“As
people of America, we have a profound debt of gratitude to the men and
women who answer the call to duty and volunteer for our military, they
are our heroes and always will be,” said Quinn.
The same week Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced it will close a record-breaking number of schools at the end of the school year, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released a report revealing increased instances of homelessness and poverty amongst Illinois’ students.
Nearly
half of Illinois’ approximately 2 million students qualify as low
income, increasing from 37.9 percent to 49 percent since 2008, according
to the ISBE.
“Research tells us that children in areas of
concentrated poverty often experience higher levels of stress and can
exhibit more severe behavioral and emotional problems than children
overall,” the report reads. "These difficulties often impact a child’s likelihood of success in
school, leading to lower achievement scores and higher dropout rates."
The Chicago City Council will hold hearings on what are rumored to be
80 to 120 neighborhood school closings, according to Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th),
head of the council's education committee.
Thomas, who as education
chairperson must convene such a panel, has previously been silent on a
resolution signed by 32 aldermen calling for a school closing hearing. She told
Progress Illinois that she would “absolutely” hold such a hearing. Read more »
Despite the drumbeat of fiscal austerity that lead to other significant social service cuts, the Illinois General Assembly last week actually passed a budget for next year with meaningful increases – yes, increases – in money for key state programs to help the homeless, and those in danger of becoming homeless.
The state did this through taking money from a trust fund reserved for affordable housing. In an ideal world for homeless service providers, money to fund their work would have come from general revenue funds. Read more »
More than 120 volunteers in Chicago will be heading to homeless shelters to try to collect names of the city's homeless for a name registry. The effort is part of a nationwide campaign to find 100,000 homes for some of the nation's most vulnerable.
By the end of June 2014, more than two acres of vacant land in
Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood will be transformed into an
affordable housing development with services for veterans and their families.
The same week 
The Chicago City Council will hold hearings on what are rumored to be
80 to 120 neighborhood school closings, according to Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th),
head of the council's education committee.
Despite the drumbeat of fiscal austerity that lead to other significant social service cuts, the Illinois General Assembly last week actually passed a budget for next year with meaningful increases – yes, increases – in money for key state programs to help the homeless, and those in danger of becoming homeless.