Illinois has until Dec. 31 to opt into a new federal scholarship tax credit that analysts say could bring more than $2 billion to students, but Gov. JB Pritzker has not indicated whether he will sign on.
A new Chicago Board of Education takes its seats at the end of January, with analysts predicting immediate battles over the district’s budget and board control between union-aligned and opposition members.
A former East Aurora School District 131 board president faces federal charges tied to an alleged $1.3 million kickback scheme involving a $2.7 million district purchase of air purifiers, federal prosecutors said.
Reform-aligned commentator Florian Sohnke and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates each claimed success after the city’s first elected school board concluded its initial elections, with control of the 10-member board still unresolved.
Victor Henderson, a litigation attorney and former CPA, is making his case for Chicago Public Schools Board of Education president in the first-ever direct election for the role, citing a $10 billion district debt and lagging student achievement.
North Park University secured a $650,108 NIH grant — the first in the school’s history — to fund a four-year study on how lymphoma cells spread to the brain, providing students hands-on biomedical research experience alongside faculty.
Chicago Public Schools reminded families that students will have no classes Monday for parent-teacher conferences and Tuesday for Election Day, when Chicago voters will for the first time choose a fully elected 21-member school board.
Two Triton College students completed paid 10-week internships with the Grand Chamber by O’Hare through an Illinois Reinvigorate Project grant, each earning $7,500 while gaining hands-on experience in business outreach and community development.
Chicago’s first fully elected school board represents a genuine democratic advance — but voters must ask whether CTU-backed candidates will govern in the interest of students and taxpayers, or serve as an instrument of union priorities at odds with the district’s precarious fiscal reality.
Chicago Public Schools has scheduled districtwide parent-teacher conferences for Monday, Nov. 2, with no classes Monday or Tuesday in observance of Election Day. Superintendent Dr. Macquline King urged families to engage with teachers and eligible voters to cast ballots in Tuesday’s historic board election.