Illinois education news: public schools, charters, and universities

Northwestern students set up a protest camp on Deering Meadow on Thursday morning.

Northwestern students set up pro-Palestinian encampment, joining protesters nationwide

Students linked arms and formed a line against police after Northwestern leaders said the tent encampment violated university policy. By 9 p.m. protest leaders were told by university officials that arrests could begin later in the evening.

By Isabel Funk

Education

Facing budget criticism, CPS officials say changes are 'milestone' to be celebrated

In a surprise, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s top ally — the Chicago Teachers Union — was also critical of the district’s lack of transparency and failure to prioritize classroom aides in the budget, even though the union has long supported a shift toward needs-based funding.

By Nader Issa

Northwestern hazing scandal

Northwestern hazing scandal lawsuits are consolidated

Seven lawsuits filed by former football players will be temporarily consolidated with a lawsuit filed by former head coach Pat Fitzgerald during the pretrial process.

By Kade Heather

Stephen Mitchell wears a dark blue zip-up sweater and red ballcap as he stands in a meeting room with several white tables.

Education

CPS selective, magnet schools appear to take hit under new equity funding formula

Local school councils at several specialty elementary schools in Chicago say they’re facing budget cuts — a claim backed by a WBEZ/Sun-Times analysis.

By Sarah Karp | WBEZ and Nader Issa

Education

$5 million fund to aid Chicago students with disabilities

The Diverse Learners Recovery Fund, launched through a partnership with the city and Ada S. McKinley Community Services, will provide up to 8,000 families with one-time grants of $500.

By Sophie Sherry

Chicago

Lou Malnati's aims to honor 10 teachers with a year of free pizza

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week next month, 10 winners will be awarded a free medium cheese pizza per week for a year in addition to a $250 catering package for their school.

By Sun-Times Wire

Columnists

Playing in the high school marching band makes you 'part of something bigger'

Morgan Park High School trumpeters riff on the most popular brass instrument.

By Neil Steinberg

Jennifer Tackett and her daughter, Coco Tackett-Kurth, participate in a guided discussion on racism and prejudice at Northwestern University.

Education

Talking to your kids about race can reduce bias, a Northwestern professor found

Psychologist Sylvia Perry studied conversations between white parents and their school-aged children to understand prejudice.

By Esther Yoon-Ji Kang

A road, flanked by leafy trees, leads to the Illinois Capitol and its picturesque columns and dome.

Columnists

Chicago Teachers Union tries to bulldoze through Springfield on selective schools bill — and loses

Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose popularity has plummeted with his Statehouse influence, ought to take this as a warning not to follow the CTU’s example.

By Rich Miller

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates

City Hall

Chicago Teachers Union demanding 9% annual raises, won't rule out a strike

Having former CTU organizer Brandon Johnson in the mayor’s office won’t keep the union from walking out if needed, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates told the Sun-Times, adding that, “We’re a labor union that understands the power of solidarity and the power of work stoppage.”

By Fran Spielman

Paradegoers march in the 52nd annual Pride Parade on the North Side, Sunday, June 25, 2023.

LGBTQIA+

Pride Parade will now allow participants from schools, organizers say

A teacher says Nettelhorst School will help “coordinate” a group of schools into one entry after six schools had been denied participation when organizers scaled back the popular parade.

By Mariah Rush

Crime

3 University of Chicago students held up near campus

The students were approached by people with guns Wednesday afternoon and robbed. No one was hurt. University police will ‘maintain an increased presence’ following the incidents.

By Sun-Times Wire

Education

What does Springfield's selective-enrollment bill mean for Chicago Public Schools?

The proposed legislation is the latest and most significant backlash to a December declaration by the Board of Education that it would no longer prioritize selective schools, refocusing resources to neighborhood schools burdened by years of cuts and underfunding.

By Nader Issa

A bookshelf filled with children's and young adult books.

Letters to the Editor

Phonics is the answer to illiteracy in Chicago Public Schools

Americans cast off a winning method to improve literacy. Replacing it with what?

By Letters to the Editor

FBI agent James Rudisill takes down a flag at sunset at his home. The Army veteran and his Chicago lawyer are asking the Supreme Court to take his case, which could help other long-serving vets tap college educational benefits for themselves and their families that they earned under more than one version of the GI Bill.

GI Bill

Supreme Court ruling in GI Bill case could force VA to give more than 1 million vets greater college benefits

The ruling Tuesday in favor of Rudisill, who’s now an FBI agent, also could help other long-serving vets tap college educational benefits for themselves and their families that they earned under more than one version of the GI Bill.

By Stephanie Zimmermann

Editorials

Lawmakers, pass a bill that protects Chicago's selective schools and programs

A proposed bill would prohibit the Board of Education from closing, changing admissions standards or drastically altering funding for selective schools at both the elementary and high school level.

By CST Editorial Board

Education

CTU makes most ‘ambitious’ demands ever in new contract, wants bargaining done in public

The teachers union’s contract expires this summer. On top of raises for staff, it wants help for unhoused students and more dual-language education.

By Sarah Karp | WBEZ

The Catherine Cook School in the 49th ChicagoPride Parade. | Rick Majewski/For the Sun-Times.

LGBTQIA+

Chicago Pride Parade denies all previous year's school participants

All schools that participated in the 2023 Pride Parade were denied entry this year, and teachers see irony in exclusion from “one of the most inclusive places that you can go.”

By Mariah Rush

Other Views

Many Chicago Public Schools students struggle with illiteracy. The consequences are devastating.

When a child is reeling from stress, trauma or hardship, the thinking part of their brain shuts down. Our money should be spent on high-dosage tutoring and other individualized approaches that are effective against illiteracy.

By Taal Hasak-Lowy

A purple sphere emitting light against black background.

Education

Northwestern astrophysicists find possibly one of the lightest black holes ever

They used gravitational wave signals to discover a neutron star crashing into a mysterious object, believed to be a black hole.

By Jessica Ma

Education

Chicagoans have hopes, doubts about new student debt relief proposed by Biden

“I just feel like I’m going to die paying off my student loans,” said one high school counselor in Southeast Chicago after the president introduced a plan to aid nearly 25 million more student loan borrowers. But a borrower in Pilsen said the program could “radically change my life.”

By Lisa Philip | WBEZ

Columnists

How Black colleges and universities have been underfunded by billions for decades

Tennessee State University has been hit the worst, having been underfunded by $2.1 billion over 30 years. Chicago State University’s funding has declined by 46% over the last quarter-century.

By Marc H. Morial