From the Blogs
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Laura Washington to Lead Publisher Search, Oversee Management at The Chicago Reporter
As we announced last week, Kimbriell Kelly will be leaving the Reporter to join The Washington Post. But we are excited to share with you a transition plan to ensure that the good work of the Reporter continues without interruption, including plans for the 40th anniversary, website re-launch and the editor search.
We are happy to announce that former Chicago Reporter Publisher Laura Washington will rejoin the Reporter to lead the search for a new publisher. She will serve as interim publisher and work with staff to oversee the work of the publication. Laura is a 17-year veteran of the Reporter. Since her departure in 2002, she has been an ongoing supporter of the Reporter’s work. She is currently a Chicago Sun-Timescolumnist, political analyst for ABC 7-Chicago and contributing editor for In These Times.
Washington will be leading the Reporter’s search for a new publisher and will be forming a search committee of internal and external stakeholders to make the new hire.
In addition, Managing Editor Rui Kaneya has been named interim Editor of The Chicago Reporter. He will oversee the day-to-day operations of the publication. Kaneya came to the Reporter in 1997 as a research assistant and was a recipient of the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Minority Fellowship in Urban Journalism in 1998 and specializes in reporting on immigration issues. His work has been recognized with numerous awards for his reporting and editing. Among the most recent were the Watchdog Award for Excellence in Public Interest Reporting from the Chicago Headline Club, the Society of Professional Journalists' local chapter, and the Herman Kogan Media Award from The Chicago Bar Association.
Both changes will be effective as of Monday, Nov. 5.
Joint statement from The Civic Action Network and Protestants for the Common Good
As people of faith, we affirm the crucial role of high-quality public education for all children in our American democracy and are committed to achieving that in our Chicago public schools.
Chicago Public Schools is the third largest public school system in the nation, serving roughly 400,000 students and employing over 20,000 teachers. This week, as the Chicago Teachers Union goes on strike for the first time in 25 years, Protestants for the Common Good and the Civic Action Network of Community Renewal Society issue the following statement.
We believe that it is particularly important to support the Chicago teachers who nourish and educate our city’s most precious resource—its children. It is our moral obligation to provide excellent public education to every child, ensuring a strong foundation for the next generation of leaders in our city. We offer our thanks and gratitude to those who work tirelessly in the classroom, and we support the teachers in their negotiations. Read more »
Bolingbrook woman takes on housing authority, Freddie Mac to keep herself from being evicted
This story started out as a tragedy.
Another poor woman caught up in the bureaucracy of low-income housing assistance, unhelpful government agencies and an unexpected foreclosure. Add unpaid back taxes and Freddie Mac to the saga, and Constance Coleman, 52, faced being put out on the street.
But instead, it's a victory—of sorts. Read more »
Religious tolerance, freedom promoted at Sikh candlelight vigil (Photos)
As hundreds flooded into the Palatine Sikh Gurdwara, or temple, Monday night, all being required to remove their shoes and cover their heads, those of other faiths were identifiable by one thing: the educational pamphlets they had picked up on their way in.
Interfaith religious tolerance was a message returned to again and again Monday night, as speakers offered their prayers for the six victims in the Sunday Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting. The candlelight vigil, held by the Sikh Religious Society, 1280 W. Winnetka St., welcomed people of all faiths to share in the sorrow and learn about Sikh culture and customs. Read more »
Emanuel rolls out competitive preschool funding, adds charters to mix
Under a new system announced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday, preschool programs will vie against each other in a highly competitive process to win city and CPS contracts and they will face a new contender: charter schools.
Emanuel unveiled the long-awaited process, and announced the city will add at least 2,000 new preschool slots next year and more in future years. Another 4,000 children will receive increased access to wraparound services through existing early childhood programs. Read more »
Interactive map highlights poverty along CTA, Metra line
How many times have you looked at a CTA map? Dozens, maybe hundreds, of times? Neat lines and colors, categorizing our city into eight colors and 144 dots.
But what if that map told you more about the people who lived there than just how to get to your destination? Read more »
For the record: History lesson, elected board
It is a common misconception that the Chicago mayor acquired the authority to appoint the School Board in 1995. In fact, in Chicago, the mayor has always appointed the School Board, at least during the lifetime of anyone now living.
This issue has come up recently as activists and some aldermen have started to push for an elected school board.
The 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, which decentralized the school system, Read more »
Chicago Housing Authority's accounting of empty units draws attention from HUD
I walked into the Chicago Housing Authority's annual meeting Tuesday as Commissioner Mildred Harris ticked through a checklist of the agency's recent successes.
More than 800 new units are slated to open up this year; the occupancy at family sites sits at 98.8 percent; and mixed-income developments are 97.8 percent leased out. Read more »
Where does Illinois' welfare money go?
I was reading through a Stateline news piece on welfare this week and I got to this line at the end:
"But a growing concern is that no one really knows how the state and federal TANF money is being spent."
Um, what? That concerned me. According to the piece, the federal Government Accounting Office figures that 71 percent of all the money spent on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families-- TANF, a.k.a. welfare-- is being spent on stuff that's not "cash assistance." Read more »
Winners and losers in CPS budget
CPS leadership is proposing a budget that does not include massive layoffs, but that doesn’t mean that some schools aren’t losing teachers and other staff.
This year, for the first time, CPS posted a searchable database that shows school-level and unit-level information on budgets and positions. These numbers show how staffing ebbs and flows among schools. Read more »
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