Get the latest news from around Illinois.
WBEZ: As Younger CPS Students Return To School, Some High School Families Say ‘What About Us?’
As Chicago Public Schools students began returning to classrooms this week, high schoolers across the city were still at home, with no immediate return day in sight. And for some, like Teresa Hayes’ youngest daughter, remote learning just isn’t cutting it.
“She’s stuck in her room at a desk for a really long time,” Hayes said. “She really is lacking motivation because she really responded well to adults that would nudge her.”
Chicago Tribune: Pritzker said the failure of his graduated-rate income tax would leave Illinois with two options. He’s eliminated both of them.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker long warned that without his graduated-rate income tax, which voters rejected in November, Illinois would be left with only two options to address its chronic budget problems: raising income taxes or double digit across-the-board spending cuts.
But ahead of his budget address to lawmakers Wednesday, Pritzker outlined a state spending plan that would neither raise the income tax or alter the total budget outlay.
The Center Square: Illinois taxpayers paying former lawmakers $2.1 million a month from underfunded pension system
Illinois taxpayers pay more than $2.1 million a month to retired part-time state legislators or their surviving spouses from a fund that’s only 16% funded. The individual monthly payouts are as high as $18,000 per month. Some pensioners aren’t actually retired but still getting paid.
There are 425 people drawing off the General Assembly Retirement System, ranging from $122 a month to $18,000.
State Journal-Register: Filing for unemployment in Illinois? What people should know about the IDES situation
Over the past 11 months, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has seen a deluge of 1.8 million new unemployment claims brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. With all of the new claims and people coming into the unemployment system for the first time, the agency has had a tough time keeping up with all of the demand.
This has created many problems, exacerbated by a system that largely cuts down on unemployment agencies like IDES during better economic times, such as the period before the pandemic.
Chicago Tribune: The standoff over Chicago schools is over for now. What’s next for Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CTU?
As the dust settles from the latest battle between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union, the city’s elementary schools may have reopened to in-person learning but no clear winners have emerged.
Lightfoot avoided a second CTU strike within two years, but still went to the brink with a powerful force in Chicago politics. CTU approved a back-to-school deal with support from close to 55% of its total membership amid ongoing concerns from educators about school safety. Parents and families, meanwhile, lived with tremendous stress and uncertainty during negotiations over their children’s education as city leaders clashed over reopening grades K-8.