Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/author/alex-nitkin/)
Of 42 buildings left vacant after the 2013 school closings, CPS immediately found new uses for four. Altogether, 33 are still vacant with no firm repurposing plans. Since the closings, property crimes have gone up in some cases.
Suspensions in CPS are on the decline, and teachers and students say they feel safer, according to a new report. But a lack of data on charter school suspensions, which some advocates say leaves a big question mark in an otherwise positive trend.
Advocates for state-funded child care programs were among those who spoke out at an Illinois Senate hearing in Chicago Monday, joining nearly a dozen organizations that sharply criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed $6 billion in budget cuts for 2016.
For parents whose children are not native English speakers, the cloud of doubt surrounding the new PARCC test is doubly worrying.
The economic recovery has done nothing to curb joblessness among Chicago teenagers, according to a new report from the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University. Instead, youth employment has plunged, especially among African American young men, and is now at its lowest level in years. And the poorest households are hardest hit: Only 11 percent of Chicago teens in households with an income below $20,000 annually were employed in 2013, compared to 30 percent of teens in households with incomes between $100,000 and $150,000. The report, jointly prepared with the Alternative Schools Network, is being released today and will be the focus of a hearing on Friday at the Chicago Urban League. It’s the sixth report on the topic published in as many years.