Members of the Chicago Teachers Union at a rally in January. Teachers are getting a day off school next week to lobby in Springfield for more funding from state lawmakers. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union plan to turn up the heat on state lawmakers Wednesday, with more than 600 staff being given the day away from classrooms to go to Springfield to rally for more revenue. Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and the school board president will join staff at the state capital as the district stares down a budget deficit of more than $400 mi ..read more

A student walks past Loyola University’s Arrupe College building. Camilla Forte/The Hechinger Report Jazmin Mejia went straight from high school to what she thought was the perfect fit at Loyola University Chicago, a 30-minute drive from the neighborhood where she grew up. But Mejia was quickly overwhelmed at the North Side campus of nearly 17,000 students. “The classes were too big,” says Mejia, 18. “I was struggling to ask for help.” Jazmin Mejia left Loyola University’s four-year main campus in favor of the university’s two-year program, called Arrupe College. “The classes were too ..read more

An Arlington Heights school nurse has been fired while authorities investigate whether students’ prescription medications were switched. AP file Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 school board members have fired a school nurse under investigation for dispensing the wrong medication to students. During a special meeting Wednesday night, the board voted 6-0 to terminate the employment of the registered nurse at Westgate Elementary School for “gross misconduct committed outside the scope of her employment, multiple unauthorized violations of District 25 policy and procedures, and will ..read more

Christian Hampton (center) performs at the Pritzker Pavilion with Uniting Voices Chicago in 2023. Hampton is one of hundreds of young Chicagoans who have celebrated music with the choir locally and around the world. Kyle Flubacker Imagine you are 16 years old, a Black child from the South Side — your life's explorations to date taking you as far away as Mississippi and Florida. Then you find yourself on an airplane, jetting across the Atlantic Ocean. You journey to Egypt, take in the 5,000-year-old pyramids of Giza. There's a cruise to Luxor on the Nile, the world's longest river. Oh yes ..read more

Agentes del Departamento de Policía de la Universidad de Chicago permiten que los manifestantes vuelvan al patio el martes después de desalojar el campamento propalestino durante la noche en el campus del lado sur. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times La policía del campus de la Universidad de Chicago desalojó a primera hora de la mañana del martes un campamento propalestino en la universidad, poniendo fin a una manifestación de ocho días que llevó a los estudiantes manifestantes y a las autoridades universitarias a una situación de estancamiento en relación con las demandas de los manifestantes. La a ..read more

Pro-Palestinian protesters and Chicago police officers face each other Saturday as students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago set up an encampment outside the museum to protest the Israel-Hamas war. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has opened a preliminary investigation into complaints against Chicago police officers at a pro-Palestinian protest near the Art Institute of Chicago on Saturday, officials confirmed. COPA opened a preliminary investigation to determine whether it or the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs wi ..read more

University of Chicago police block pro-Palestinian protesters from entering the campus after officers began tearing down an encampment early Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times A standoff is underway after police cleared out a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of the University of Chicago early Tuesday, taking down tents and setting up barricades to keep protesters away. The action began around daybreak as campus police, who were keeping students from entering the quad, surrounded the university’s main quadrangle in the Hyde Park neighborhood. As of about 7 a.m. the encam ..read more

The Center for Care and Discovery at the University of Chicago, shown on May 2, 2016. Photography by Michael Satalic Medical residents and fellows at University of Chicago Medicine voted to unionize, making it the third teaching hospital in Chicago to organize, seeking fair pay. In a vote Monday, 98% of more than 1,000 residents at UChicago voted in favor of representation by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU). Residents at UChicago are the latest to organize, following in the footsteps of their peers at the University of Illinois Chicago, who unionized in 2021, and Northw ..read more

Arte con gis, carteles y tiendas de campaña cubren el patio de la acampada propalestina de la Universidad de Chicago en Hyde Park el domingo. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times Varios campamentos propalestinos permanecieron el domingo en los campus del área de Chicago después de que casi 70 personas fueran detenidas en la Escuela del Art Institute. Se trata de unas 2,500 personas que han sido detenidas en unos 50 campus de todo el país desde el 18 de abril. En Chicago, los campamentos universitarios se mantuvieron durante todo el fin de semana, muchos de ellos con ceremonias religiosas y clases p ..read more

Speech therapist Stephanie Plein (right) makes 15-year-old Sydney laugh as she mimics a cicada during a lesson about how to prepare for the upcoming cicada emergence. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times The classroom at Keshet school for students with disabilities buzzed with energy — and cicada noises — as four kids learned about the cicada emergence coming this spring. They clapped, screeched and laughed as teachers and staff helped them prepare for what could be a jarring change. The buzzing and presence of bugs they haven't seen before could be surprising and scary for people with autism or other ..read more