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Illinois’ Black lawmakers are demanding reforms to the state’s education system they say is failing Black children.
The Legislative Black Caucus hosted a news conference at Chicago State University on Wednesday to discuss historical inequities in education that members said have unjustly held back Black children for generations.
“Changes needed for our students are happening too slowly,” said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood. “We cannot afford to have another generation of students to be on the school-to-prison pipeline. We need to leverage this moment in time to identify bold measures that will reimagine our school system beyond the limitations of the programs we have tried in the past.”
In Illinois, 22 percent of Black students are ready for kindergarten, 15 percent can read by fourth grade, and Black students have a 75 percent graduation rate, Lightford said. Each of those metrics falls behind children of different races. […]
The members would later meet for a subject matter hearing on early childhood education.
Caucus members spoke in the Gwendolyn Brooks Library at Chicago State University. Rep. Nicholas Smith (D-Chicago) rode his bike around the campus as a kid and also graduated from CSU. Smith noted Chicago State was once the top local college for aspiring teachers, but that has since changed. Illinois has also dealt with a significant teacher shortage for several years.
“We’re taking a closer look at who’s teaching our children, and why our teachers don’t look like the children in the classroom,” Smith added. “So, when we think about the teacher shortage, we have to think about new and innovative ways to attract people to the teaching profession.”
[Rep. Will Davis] says it’s unfortunate recent events in the national spotlight led the caucus to this opportunity for change. However, he notes Black lawmakers are here and ready to deliver.
“The objective is not to just simply walk through the door, but to kick it wide open and really do what’s necessary to make sure that the education systems from early childhood to K-12, high school and secondary education…do everything possible to make sure that the education of Black people is acknowledged, recognized and put at the forefront.”
* Sun-Times covered the hearing…
Advocates testified that income, health outcomes and crime rates of a given area can all be tied to the availability and access to quality education, as well as other factors such as accessible and affordable child care and after-school services. In Illinois, [Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois] said, census tracts with a high percentage of Black residents tended to have schools that received fewer resources, had more vacant teacher positions and fewer counselors than other communities.
Potential actions to reverse these trends include, according to advocates, significant financial investment to provide affordable child care, pre-kindergarten education, literacy programs and other measures focused to give preference to low-income students and families that need resources the most. […]
During the news conference, [Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest] said the potentially expensive measures will need the support of his colleagues outside of the Black Caucus.
“While they’re saying they’re with us now, when the rubber hits the road we’ll see exactly where they are,” he said, without naming any specific colleagues. “They just have no desire to see the equity that needs to come about by assisting the black community.”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 12:36 pm
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The Governor has always been a serious advocate for early childhood education. So this would be an issue he could get behind.
Comment by A Jack Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 2:23 pm
And the White community in so many poor areas of the state?
Comment by Unconventionalwisdom Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 2:35 pm
==school-to-prison pipeline==
Two of our strongest labor unions.
Comment by City Zen Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:00 pm
School choice would change the future of all children. Give a kid a chance in Englewood not have to attend CPS and let’s see the results in a generation? The system is broken. The union is in control and feign about the “kids”. All these schools that are remote will be the first to say its sub standard when this hoax ends. Dupage county alone has schools full day. And schools full remote. Why? Unions. Catholic schools are all in person. Nobody has died. The farce needs to end.
Comment by Fighter of Foo Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:14 pm
“School choice would change the future of all children.”
Those schools would meet all ADA requirements? Accept whatever comes in the front door? Comply with state laws on student suspension / expulsion?
Comment by Anyone Remember Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:23 pm
My suggestions:
a. Raise revenues in Illinois - pass the Fair Tax ballot measure.
b. Take the long view - where would we like to see our impoverished communities - urban and rural - in 5-10 years, in terms of access to healthcare, community parks and recreation, public libraries, job training programs, preK-12 and higher ed….now what steps do we take to implement these plans?
c. Fully fund the new Evidence Based Funding Formula. This would provide for much of what was referred to in the Black Caucus press conference.
d. Re-institute vocational education, with foci on trades, technical education, healthcare and hospitality, transportation (just the start of the wish list)…
e. De-couple k-12 education from the manic pursuit for data, which has led to a dumbed-down curriculum, killed off music and arts, and killed off creativity and autonomy in the classroom.
f. Improve working conditions in the teaching profession.
g. Unwind many of the changes K-12 has undergone in recent years - these have now become the education status quo. “Education reform” needs reform. It didn’t work, doesn’t work (as currently playing out), and is/has led to the loss of Black educators in Chicago and throughout the state. How many times have we seen the roll out of a new state test, new curriculum, new state standards (Common Core anyone?), close schools, fire staffs and hire new staff…..without ever addressing the underlying conditions of life in those communities.
h. Marshall plan for South and West sides, and rural Illinois. Especially post-pandemic, this will be needed. Invest and re-build these communities, and put people to work.
i. Don’t think the answer is ONLY schools. They’re just one piece. The real answer is a much larger, long term investment in rebuiding Illinois economy, and communities.
Hoping past is not prologue here, and that the current catastrophe the U.S. (not just Illinois) finds itself in, will be addressed in a larger, holistic way.
Comment by Ashland Adam Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:23 pm
Better schools might help. Better parenting will definitely help.
DCFS used to have groups to help parents improve their parenting skills. It was effective for some families.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:35 pm
Structure, stability and security at home are the most important factors in a child’s education. No outside programming can overcome the deficits caused by faulty parenting.
Comment by Rudy’s teeth Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:49 pm
Segreation in Illinois schools along both class and racial lines has been an issue in Illinois for quite some time and is much worse than when it was I. The 80s or 90s. Here in Central Illinois, African Americans make up the largest ethnic block in most of the city school districts even though they are less than thirty percent of the students in district boundaries and an even smaller amount of the cities school age children when you include kids in communities like Decatur or Springfield that live in the city but in other school districts. Funding is an issue both for the district compared to others and sadly within district too. Here the district in Decatur consolidated the middle schools into one larger overcrowded middle school that has had lots of issues to give one of the buildings to a k-8 Montessori program that gets a lot more resources. They gave it one of the buildings and spent over six million on remodeling the Montessori School while making minimal updates to the other school. All those kids in that one junior high caused problems that hurt a lot of kids. That Montessori School has a much higher affluent and white population compared to the rest of the district so it is perceived as “better”. That is just one of many issues the Black caucus could raise.
Comment by DTown Resident Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:49 pm
- Fighter of Foo - Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:14 pm:
“School choice would change the future of all children.”
Despite the claims for why school choice is a “solution,” I just don’t think that most Chicago-area residents would support it at the end of the day.
Consider you live in Englewood, and you have complete choice as to where you send your kid. Why not send your child to New Trier, Stevenson, or Hinsdale Central? They are the “top-rated” schools in the state, right?
What are truly the odds that residents of the communities served by those schools will welcome others from outside of those neighborhoods, when their property values are directly associated with the school districts?
Poke holes in my logic (as there may well be some), but I’m just not seeing school choice come to fruition on that point alone.
Comment by Zoomer Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 3:51 pm
Parents are failing children both white and black. Start there first.
Comment by Hickory Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 6:48 pm
1. What Hickory said.
2. Provide high quality early childhood education for all children from low income families.
Comment by Enviro Thursday, Sep 17, 20 @ 9:45 pm