Other Views
District-wide policies requiring at least 12 months’ public notice before a charter school closure and full financial transparency for any school receiving public funds are sorely needed. Parents, students and staff deserve smoother transitions, not sudden chaos. And taxpayer money should go toward helping kids learn — not to silence staff trying to improve their schools or to enrich insiders, lawyers and charter bosses.
There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation on the internet and in the news, and it is easy to be wary in the face of such an onslaught. People do not know who or what to trust, and so it might seem safer to not vaccinate, especially if the true dangers of a particular pathogen are minimized.
There are helpful things to do that don’t require lots of money or a big political fight, writes Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. Unlike corruption, municipal debt or long-term population loss, gun violence feels unsolvable primarily because we’ve been focused on the wrong solutions.
By imploring us to personally imagine ourselves in the position of another, we are forced to break down the barriers that often separate ethnic and religious communities.
The desire to watch the world burn doesn’t come out of nowhere, researchers say.
This week, the City Council is expected to vote on a measure that would clamp down on predatory towing companies. Senate Bill 2040 has unanimously passed the state Senate and is now headed to the House.
They may only come to Mass on Christmas and Easter, but these churchgoers deserve more than pomp and ceremony, a former Catholic priest writes.
By taking himself out of the running for a third term as governor next year, Pritzker could position himself as a leader with big ideas rather than an official forced to explain why Illinois keeps losing taxpayers and businesses.
Repealing or weakening these investments would slam the brakes on job growth, forcing workers to bear the brunt of political dysfunction in Washington.
One of the most common yet underestimated factors shaping modern sleep is how we engage with social media before bed.
Decades ago, Washington Square Park often drew crowds of 2,000 or more, and by the early 1900s it had acquired the unofficial, now politically dubious moniker, Bughouse Square, harkening to its often vocal, quirky patrons who gave speeches, rants, lectures and sermons, often on top of soapboxes.
House Bill 1828, which was recently called by the Public Utilities Committee, would allow top private water utilities — Illinois American Water, Aqua Illinois and Prairie Path — to charge their customers for services they aren’t even receiving.
Green social housing is an environmentally and fiscally sustainable, mixed-income housing production model that will enable our city to develop permanently affordable housing for all Chicagoans, write four City Council members.
Not only do sexual assaults take a physical and emotional toll on victims, our government shoulders roughly $1 trillion for the lifetime economic burden of rape.
“I can’t help but think about that feeling as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans target Americans’ health care coverage in an effort to fund tax breaks for the wealthy,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., writes of his opposition to the proposed $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
While we’ve made progress in reducing homicide and violence rates, the presence of guns remains ubiquitous in our society, with not enough protections in our laws to stop tragedies.
“What is in the proposed settlement agreement that our members will soon vote on are enormous improvements for Chicago’s children,” says Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates.
For starters, the city can eliminate a Byzantine funding process and a a long list of requirements and preferences for affordable projects, writes Richard Day, who worked in the administration of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
The Credit Card Competition Act would encourage credit card networks to compete for the business of retailers of all types and sizes — pressuring “swipe fees” to fall.
Local author David McGrath pays tribute to his late older sister, who he describes as going toe-to-toe with her brothers — “slobbish, reckless ruffians” — when they were growing up in Evergreen Park,
The state’s attorney already has discretion to refuse to refer individuals she believes will not benefit from the program or who may pose future safety risks. Nothing is gained and much is lost by further restrictions.
By nudging state workers to receive care at independent physician practices and outpatient surgery centers instead of at more expensive hospital-owned facilities, lawmakers can ease the burden on taxpayers and still help workers access top-notch care, a suburban doctor writes. Plus, a reader laments the demise of the Sun-Times Editorial Board and political endorsements — the latter of which ceased once the newspaper became a nonprofit .
The president’s decision to shutter the global news organization portends ever more troubling repression of independent journalism in the United States.
A Chicago-area writer muses on the power of music to evoke memory and why the 1970s hit “United We Stand” has become a political anthem in the age of Trump.
Triumphalist rhetoric like what we’ve heard from the president makes it impossible to see things, including ourselves, as they really are. And that invites disaster, including war.
The head of the Alliance for the Great Lakes explains how Trump administration EPA cuts will hurt clean water programs, such as lead service line replacement and initiatives to reduce “forever chemicals” in drinking water.
Two examples from a former transit executive: Renaming SouthWest Service as the Orland Park Line and the Union Pacific North Line as North Shore Line.
Doctors, nurses and other health care workers need better security and other protections against violent crime in ER spaces, the president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians writes. Pending legislation would help.
The financially strained school district cannot take on more debt that threatens to rob students of much-needed resources, a former principal and a parent write.
The Consul General of Israel to the Midwest reflects on the horrors of Oct. 7, the way forward in the Middle East and ending antisemitism.