But since winning first place in her age group in a community-wide spelling bee last year, Sherron, 10, is now like a rock star.

“Everybody is nicer to me at school,” said Sherron, who won a computer and trophy for correctly spelling the word “cookie.” “When I won I was like, ‘I feel great,’ loud and enthusiastically. I was really happy.”

The buzz is spreading through Austin once again that the 2nd annual Spelling Bee is coming up on April 8, 9 and 10, at the Austin Town Hall, 5610 W. Lake St. Registration packets have gone out to 23 neighborhood schools. Today — Saturday, March 20 — is the sign-up deadline.

A spelling bee in Austin was the brainchild of teens at Young Creative Minds, a nonprofit organization run by and geared toward troubled kids ages 13 to 19. The group was founded by Austin resident Danette King, who said she was beaten and raped as a young girl. King, 35, said she often looked for love on the streets, having her first of seven children at age 14.

So when she became an adult, King wanted to create a place where she could sit down and talk with kids, one-on-one, without disclosing anything to their parents. When the neighborhood’s Avalon Management, a real estate managing and developing firm, gave her a place to meet in the basement of one of its buildings and the Austin Safety Net Works kicked in $25,000, she was able to fulfill her vision.

What started with one kid and a flier became dozens of kids, all in dire need of help. King created the acronym she implements in the program: S.M.I.L.E., which stands for “self-respect, motivation, integrity, leadership and education.”

“These are things that I wanted as a child, but I didn’t get them,” said King, whose husband, Brian, is event promoter and sponsor seeker. “These are the very same children that went through the same pain I went through.

“But they can look at themselves now and smile, they’re not angry any more,” said King, who’s working on a book about her experiences called “Behind Closed Doors.” “They have goals, dreams and they respect themselves now.

“That’s what I’m pushing for with S.M.I.L.E,” she said. “Those things will take them anywhere they want to go in life.”

Last year’s spelling bee drew approximately 50 kids from nine schools. Entertaining at that first event and at the upcoming one is Blaze On, a 24-year-old hip hop artist who called the spelling bee a “positive” in a community where many kids are without outside resources or outlets and often have drug addicts as mothers, fathers and relatives.

“You gotta do whatever needs to be done that’s positive to help these kids learn,” said Blaze On, who lives just outside Austin. “There are a lot of people who don’t have it in their hearts to reach out to kids, but they need a role model that really cares. They don’t have anything.”

King said the three-day event keeps kids off the street. Winners receive a mini laptop computer, and King said she hopes to take first-place winners to Springfield to visit the state Capitol. Even those who don’t win walk away with a little something, such as movie tickets.

“It’s a good sense of accomplishment and it feels good,” King said. “All they need is someone to listen.”

May Community Academy’s Principal Roger Lewis agrees. Lewis said after Parker won last year, he got to know her and she now leads the school’s morning announcement. May Academy also had an eighth-grade runner-up last time, Savanna Young.

“We try at May to celebrate the small successes,” said Lewis. “This makes them (kids) feel good in the community, as opposed to all the negativity of living in the community.”

Lewis said the event instills confidence in winners such as Savanna and Sherron. For Sherron, the spelling bee was sweet as honey.

“I loved it,” she said.

House Bill 4647, which passed the House 112-1 last month and is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate, would force Chicago Public Schools to start a hotline to collect anonymous tips from people who might otherwise fear reporting crimes to the police. The hotline would be run by the Chicago Police Department, which would investigate each call.

Rep. Chapin Rose (R-Charleston), the only representative to vote against the bill, said this is just another unnecessary expense the state can’t afford.

“We already have this program. It is called 911 and Crime Stoppers,” Rose said. “The state of Illinois is broke. We don’t have enough money to pay our teachers. Our school districts are broke and waiting on back payments. We don’t need this. If there is an immediate threat to someone’s life, we should be dialing 911, not some 1-800 number.”

Davis disagreed. She said students will not call 911; they will not seek out a police officer because they are afraid of the repercussions of being a “snitch.”

“There must be a way for students to call and anonymously report any incidents of violence that they have heard about,” Davis said. “We need to have a way for our children to reach out and report violence without being afraid for their safety.”

Nineteen CPS students have been killed this year, 15 by gunshot, said CPS spokesman Bob Otter.

Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Services, said there is no guarantee that a hotline will work, but said it will be largely dependent on how well the hotline is promoted.

“School hotlines are just another piece of the puzzle. They are an extra tool for school officials and law enforcement,” Trump said.

If passed, Illinois will join 10 other states that have similar violence prevention hotlines within their cities, including Florida, Michigan and Georgia. Rochelle Finzel, program manager at the National Conference of State Legislators, said besides Colorado, there is no state that has passed legislation on a statewide hotline.

Illinois, along with most states, doesn’t necessarily need a hotline, said Elena Calafell, executive director of Illinois Center for Violence Prevention. Instead, the state needs to implement a comprehensive plan that involves all entities working together to curb violence, she said.

“The statistics are clear: Youth do not turn to adults, instead they turn to their peers,” she said. “Having a mechanism or vehicle for the students to report violence anonymously is a great idea, but it is a very small part of the puzzle and one that I don’t think will be utilized a great deal.”

Some supports say an anonymous tip line would help get around a community “code of silence” that often stifles law enforcement efforts.

“There is a fear that young men and women have and they won’t break the code of silence, even if it’s anonymous,” Tio Hardiman, director of Ceasefire Illinois said. “They are always afraid someone is going to find out that they snitched. We have to change those mindsets before these programs will work.”

Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) didn’t agree. She said if there was concern, the bill wouldn’t have overwhelmingly passed.

“If this is something that the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools, among other entities, don’t agree with, it would be a surprise to me,” she said. “I would have thought they would have made their concern known to someone. Obviously they didn’t. The vote was 112-1.”

The Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools declined repeated requests for comment.

Trump said ensuring students’ safety needs to become a priority again.

“We have to put our money where our mouth is,” he said. “It is one thing to say that school safety and violence prevention is the top priority, but that has to be reflected in the budget, otherwise it is more rhetoric than priority.”

Ron Holmes, a spokesman for Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), a co-sponsor for the bill in the Senate, said there has been a lot of support for the bill, and they expect it to see it on the calendar this week.

Kelsey.Duckett@loop.colum.edu

This code of silence helps to protect criminals, perpetuate retaliation and hinder police in their investigative efforts, Weis said, especially in low-income and tight-knit communities.

Weis focused on student safety in his Feb. 18 address to the small crowd, saying that many student victims tell police, “I’ll handle it myself.” Weis believes this attitude perpetuates a circle of violence, and he hopes the “Silence Kills” campaign can begin to bring an end to the code of silence with its slogan: “Stop the violence, stop the silence, because silence kills.”

The campaign, funded through federal stimulus money, includes ads in television, radio and print intended to show the brutality and lasting damage of gun crimes.

The primary purpose of police board meetings is to allow civilians a venue to air their frustrations and concerns to members of the board. Citizens who spoke at the recent meeting were largely concerned with police misconduct, specifically the case of 11-year-old Timia Williams, who was allegedly assaulted by three police officers in May 2001.

“The code of silence is justified by the fact that these officers are still on the force,” said Larry Marshall, a close family member of Williams, who said there is a serious lack of public confidence and trust in the Chicago Police Department. Marshall questioned why citizens who do not trust police officers would willingly divulge information to them, regardless of the benefits to a specific case.

Marshall’s friend George Smith, 48, spoke out against the “renegade” officers who allegedly assaulted Williams, delivering a loud and agitated speech that ranged in topic from the earthquake in Haiti to alleged police brutality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The board itself is composed of appointed civilians who earn a salary of $15,000 per year. Board members review case files and vote on action to be taken.

During the meeting, the board announced they had overturned the department’s recommendation to fire three officers accused of conducting illegal searches through the use of illegal warrants.

Chicago Justice Project Executive Director Tracy Siska calls this a disturbing trend.

Siska said there has been a two-thirds reduction in disciplinary action taken against police officers accused of misconduct. He heads the Justice Project in an attempt to make police department activity more accountable to the public.

Siska hopes to create more transparency in the Chicago Police Department in order to better regulate and prosecute misconduct. Civilians will eventually be able to, through the Project, trace a 911 call from answer to dispatch. Citizens will also be able to log onto the Project Web site and follow a case from start to finish, including any reports or complaints filed.

Police board members refused to answer questions from media at the meeting, and no one answered the number listed on their Web site. The answering service had one option: To file a complaint, press one.

In the meantime, lawmakers are struggling to pass a new bill that will stand up to future challenges. Illinois is just one of 30 states to have passed a moment of silence law. In Texas and Virginia, those laws were challenged but upheld. But in Illinois, Judge Robert W. Gettleman found the law promoted prayer in schools and was illegal.

Attorneys on Feb. 10 faced off in a packed courtroom, with the state arguing the law is critical because it helps students focus and critics arguing the law crosses the boundary between church and state.

Assistant Illinois Attorney General Rachel Murphy argued on behalf of all school districts in Illinois. Murphy defended the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act, which requires that students begin the school day with a silent prayer or reflection on the upcoming activities of the day.

Students are given choices under the law, and now children who were otherwise afraid to pray can do so, said Murphy.

“The law is mandatory so all students have the opportunity to reflect on whatever they wish,” Murphy said.

Robert Sherman, a former radio talk show host and self-proclaimed atheist, sued in October 2007 once the law became mandatory. Sherman’s daughter, Dawn, was a freshman at Buffalo Grove High School, where the moment of silence was in effect for a month before the court granted an injunction preventing schools from participating.

Sherman said his daughter doesn’t need to waste valuable school time when she’s competing with other students to get into college.

“Dawn’s in honors AP and ranks 15 out of 498 students,” said Sherman. “Dawn is told by the general assembly to stand for a moment of silence; it’s not fair to Dawn.”

Students can pray before or after school and the law puts pressure on children to pray during school, argued Sherman’s attorney, Richard Grossman.

“These are impressionable children of a tender age and tend to find teachers to be authoritative and we have teachers encouraging students to pray,” Grossman said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued the law discriminates against students. ACLU attorney Adam Schwartz objected to the word “prayer” being mentioned at all.

“As soon as there’s a prayer option, it encourages students to pray,” said Schwartz. “It sorts all religions into winners and losers and some religious traditions can’t be accommodated by a moment of silence. It’s stigmatizing.”

Teachers in Chicago have refrained from instituting the moment of silence and won’t act until the court decides, said Rosemaria Genova, spokeswoman for the Chicago Teachers Union.

Rep. William Davis (D-East Hazel Crest), who co-sponsored the controversial bill, said while he wanted to ensure a moment of silence was mandatory, the law does not require students to pray. He said students participate in other activities to help them focus on their studies and aren’t targeted in the same way.

“I just saw on the news a teacher doing yoga with students after lunch as a way for the students to focus,” said Davis. “Like that teacher, our sole purpose was to calm students down.”

Davis agreed the more expedient way would be to see what other states have done and mirror their language, but he said he will wait to see what the court decides. The great thing about the legislature is there is always another legislative session to change the law, Davis said.

Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) introduced an amendment in January 2009 that removed the word “prayer” and replaced it with “silent reflection” and “silent meditation.” Although it passed the House, Fritchey’s chief of staff, Dave Kornecki, said it has been sitting on a shelf because it hit a roadblock in the Senate.

“It’s being held hostage in the Senate,” said Kornecki. “There’s full support in the House, and the intent of Rep. Fritchey is still there to get the bill passed.”

Brooks-Rodriguez and Bond both live on Chicago’s South Side, both have raised families and placed their dreams of becoming a teacher on the back burner. That was until they applied for Illinois’ Grow Your Own Teachers, an initiative funded by the state.

“I have been a special education teacher’s assistant for 21 years at Daley Elementary Academy School, and I am ready to be the teacher,” Brooks-Rodriguez said. “This is an awesome opportunity. I have wanted it for so many years, but couldn’t afford it.”

Grow Your Own, which recruits candidates from low-income neighborhoods where schools struggle to retain a qualified staff, provides financial assistance in the form of tuition, books and childcare so each individual can earn a bachelors degree and obtain a teaching license in Illinois.

This program, which to date has graduated and placed 11 teachers, is fighting for survival as the state slashes funding. Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) said education is an area that is being hit the hardest.

Golar, who is an advocate of the program, introduced House Bill 391 on Tuesday. If passed, the bill would pour $4.5 million into the state’s education fund.

“We, in education, cannot withstand any more cuts,” she said. “If Grow Your Own doesn’t get the funding, the program will not survive. The real life and breath of any individual is education and we have to always fund these types of programs in low-income communities that need the programs the most.”

Attending Northeastern Illinois University, with four children at home and one in college, Bonds said Grow Your Own is “like the best scholarship you could ever have. They pay tuition, books and even child care so I can follow my dream.”

“If the funding for this program is cut, my heart will be broken and this great opportunity will be taken away,” she said.

Last year, the state cut the program’s funding by almost 40 percent, but Gov. Pat Quinn kept it alive by funneling $1.2 million to it. Steve Andrews, resource coordinator for Grow Your Own, said the program is not asking for additional money; they are simply asking for flat funding.

But House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) said it would be irresponsible to promise funding to any organization with the current budget shortfall of $12.8 billion.

“We are all concerned about education and we want to continue to produce teachers that live in the neighborhoods where they work so they will know the children and understand the problems of the neighborhood,” Madigan said. “But the general approach for all state programs is to stay afloat. Eventually the economy will come back. If these programs are still online, we will be in a good position to provide them with funding.”

Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Westchester), also an advocate for Grow Your Own, said although the program has been great and should be at the top of the list in the future, it is unlikely the program will find funding next year.

“The budget will recoup itself. It will turn around and when it does, this is the type of program that we need to look at for long-term funding,” Lightford said.

Nearly 90 percent of Grow Your Own candidates are people of color with strong ties to their communities. Golar said it’s these candidates that are in tune with the neighborhoods’ cultures and challenges.

Andrews said it is a disastrous time for the state and every program is in danger.

“They are talking about cutting programs completely or by 50 percent,” he said. “If that happens to Grow Your Own, over 90 percent of our candidates could not continue because they do not have financial capabilities to find their education.”

Brooks-Rodriguez is also attending Northeastern Illinois University, with her three children in college. She said the program has been a gift from God.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime, but it has been challenging because I work full-time,” she said. “But I am excited for this chance and can’t wait until the day I walk into Daley Elementary Academy with my teaching certificate. It will be one of the greatest days of my life.”

Chicago Public Radio’s City Room reports on the effects of the state budget crisis on the University of Illinois.

Nearly 200 students and faculty members rallied at the University of Illinois-Chicago to demand that the university not “balance the budget on the backs of students, faculty and the community” through tuition increases, mandatory furloughs and layoffs. The protest was organized by United in Campaign Against Budget Cuts, a coalition made up of SEIU Local Union 73, members of the UIC’s Graduate Employee Organization, as well as other student and faculty groups.

Originally an issue well known to California’s universities, higher education budget cuts have spread throughout the country to states such as Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Georgia and New York. In Chicago, the cuts could be accompanied by a 20 percent increase in tuition at UIC.

“I don’t want to see a loss of public education,” said UIC student Katherine Karbarz. “It’s important for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to get a chance to go to school. I don’t want people who deserve to go to school to not be able to afford it.”

Protesters across the nation have been met with a wide range of reactions, detailed in numerous blogs and message boards. Arrests have been made in California as well as in Milwaukee, where 15 students were arrested after trying to deliver a petition to the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin.

“We’re here to support students and workers here at the UIC,” said Trumaine Reeves of SEIU Local 73. “We have to stand up and let our voices be heard together and we can’t be ignored.”

This sentiment was echoed by other students, workers and faculty members as the rally marched toward the campus administrative building.

“I’m here to show support as a person of the city of Chicago” said one protester identifying himself  simply as Cirrocco.

The rally, held on the UIC quad, was preceded by an open discussion with Howard Bunsis, a professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University and author of a report analyzing the financial condition of the University of Illinois system.

UIC administration declined to take part in the discussion, and did not return phone calls.

“Speaking on behalf of the coalition,” said Joe Iosbaker, chief steward for SEIU Local 73, “we were very disappointed that the administration didn’t join for what turned out to be lively discussion … They would have gotten perspective on the needs of students, faculty and the community.”

University administrators announced in January that because of the state’s failure to provide complete budget funds, it would resort to furlough and budget cuts. The state has provided the university only $17 million of the $436 million it has been owed since July 1, 2009, according to a report by FightBack! News.

Bunsis’ report comes to the conclusion that “the UI system has not been true to the core academic mission, as they have increased administrative costs at a higher rate than pure academic costs.” It further concludes that “furloughs are not necessary.”

For the past three years, Shivers has spent her nights bouncing from one homeless shelter to the next. On the “really bad nights,” she scrounged up $2.25 for a CTA pass to ride up and down the Red Line.

Shivers is just one of 12,685 students  who have been identified as homeless in Chicago Public Schools. That number has jumped 30 percent in just two years, said CPS spokesman Malon Edwards.

It’s these numbers that pushed the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to reach out to Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) to re-introduce House Bill 4755, which would budget grant money for homeless youth education programs in Illinois.

Soto introduced a similar bill two years ago, but after it passed both the House and Senate, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the bill.

“This bill would create a grant for the schools to ensure that we have the funding to identify and care for each of the homeless students in Illinois,” Soto said.

In 2008, for the first time, the state Board of Education allocated $3 million toward educating homeless students. But this year, the board eliminated the funds, saying districts should use federal money instead.

Mary Fergus, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the budget was cut by more than $500 million and the board has had to make some very difficult decisions.

“We hear the outcry of needs from all across the state and each of these needs is compelling and important, but the funding is not there,” she said.

Shivers is a story that is all too familiar to Rene Heybach, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. There has been a huge spike in homeless youth in Illinois and not enough is being done, she said.

“More needs to be done for these kids that are in horrible and traumatic situations. We can’t let them slip through the system,” she said.

Fergus said there is federal money available through the McKinney-Vento law, enacted in 2002, which requires districts to waive all student fees for homeless children and provide transportation.

Shivers, who is attending Prologue Early College High School in West Town and is set to graduate in June, choked up when she recalled the years she spent on the streets.

“It is a real dark, lonely feeling,” she said. “When you ride the train all night, nobody knows what you are doing until you see the person next to you doing the same thing and you realize you are not the only one.”

More than a year ago, a six-month-pregnant Shivers was standing near the Red Line on a cold, rainy night, when a member of the Night Ministry’s Youth Outreach Program approached. The volunteer offered her a bed that night. Shivers said this was the moment that changed her life.

Now the mother of 5-month-old Naveah, Shivers is a part of the Transitional Living Program at the Open Door Shelter in West Town, a two-year program for youth ages 16 to 20.

“I don’t know where I would be today. It actually scares me and my heart dropped when you asked that,” she said.

Shivers said having a constant living situation at the shelter and somewhere to go at the end of the day makes everything, including school, a lot easier. But she said at the end of the day, it is about not giving up.

“You can’t give up, just don’t give up because it’s your life and you only have once chance at living it,” she said. “My goal is to walk across the stage at graduation with my daughter and give her a better life than I had.”

Kelsey.Duckett@loop.colum.edu

To fight this growing problem, Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) introduced House Bill 4672, which would require teachers, principals, guidance counselors and all personnel who work with students in grades 7 through 12 to be trained in suicide prevention two hours each year.

Harris joined forces with the Jason Foundation, which was founded by Clark Flatt after his son, Jason, committed suicide at 16. Harris said youth suicide is preventable — if teachers and school officials know what to look out for.

“When it comes to our schools, youth organizations and various programs, suicide just isn’t on the radar as something that a 12-year-old could be planning,” Harris said. “Ninety percent of the time, these kids are reaching out. We just don’t know how to recognize it.”

In the case of 10-year-old Aquan Lewis, the Evanston student who hanged himself by his shirt collar on a hook in an Oakton Elementary School restroom stall on Feb. 2, 2009, officials said the fifth-grader had made threats about killing himself.

Dr. Ron Davidson, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, agreed that there are almost always warning signs leading up to a suicide. In the case of Lewis, Davidson said he had serious concerns.

“It seemed this was a situation that could have been avoided. The boy made some kind of statement announcing his plans and how he was feeling, and it either wasn’t listened to or he wasn’t taken seriously,” he said.

Relatives of Lewis have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school district alleging that Evanston-Skokie School District 65 was negligent. Attorney Todd Smith, who is representing the family, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Oakton Elementary school officials also couldn’t be reached for comment.

If passed, Illinois would be the fifth state to pass legislation requiring in-service training for all school officials. In 2007, Tennessee became the first state to pass the Jason Flatt Act, followed by Louisiana, Mississippi and California. The Jason Foundation has trained 117,000 teachers so far and is currently working with five other states to pass legislation.

“It is not the only thing any state should do, but it is the single most important thing any state should do,” said Clark Flatt, chief executive officer of the Jason Flatt Foundation. “The single most important aspect of suicide prevention is training and specifically training the teachers and school officials to be able to recognize at-risk behavior.”

Davidson said he “whole-heartedly” agrees that the bill should be passed.

“It is absolutely necessary,” he said.

Flatt said the Jason Foundation, along with all organizations involved with suicide prevention, would provide free training to all school personnel.

Mary Kay Dawson, a legislative volunteer for the Jason Foundation who is working with state legislators to get the bill passed, said suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people and “is a real problem.”

“There has been great support in Illinois,” she said. “Everyone agrees with the bill in theory. We are just working on language so when we bring the bill to the table everyone is in agreement. We want this to be a team effort.”

Davidson said he is concerned when he hears any kind of objection to this type of bill.

“Lay the body of a dead child next to the issues people have against this bill, and I am certain the body of a dead child trumps any sort of irresponsible response to not taking immediate action,” he said.

Harris said he hopes there will be vote on the bill next month.

On a snowy afternoon on Feb. 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago’s Neighborhood Development Awards hosted a “Back to the Future” panel in which experts discussed the opportunities and challenges that Chicago must meet head-on to achieve economic development.

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), the newly nominated Democratic candidate for Cook County Board president, joined Scott Myers of World Sport Chicago, Raul Raymundo of the Resurrection Project, and Robert Weissbourd of RW Ventures in a discussion about what Chicago will look like in 2016 and what needs to be done to address job development and neighborhood restructuring.

It didn’t take long for education to rise to the forefront of the discussion. Preckwinkle, a former high school teacher, made it very clear that education needs to become a top priority in Chicago.

“It reflects very badly on the adults and the city that we have let the problem come to this,” she said. “Less than half of our young people graduate high school, and not having a diploma makes their future very difficult.”

Raymundo agreed. He said the graduation rate for the Hispanic population is significantly worse.

“Education is critical for our young people,” he said. “Education is critical to economic growth and development. We need to take a serious look at our education system. Reform and real action are necessary.”

Greg Hinz, the moderator for the event, noted quickly that everyone used the word “education” in their opening addresses. He then asked the panel if that was an indication of what Chicago’s most fundamental problem is: Are our young people not prepared for the workforce? Are they not educated?

Preckwinkle quickly took the question. She said she didn’t mean to “be a broken record,” but all children should receive a quality education and it is this education that is critical for all business growth.

“One of the complaints I hear from local businesses is that it is hard to find good employees,” she said. “The implication being that kids who come looking for jobs couldn’t read very well and didn’t have basic math skills. The most important factor to business growth is education.”

Weissbourd said education is vital to the success of any economy. His example: a half-percent increase in the college education rate of an area’s population would mean a 1 percent increase in regional profit.

“The single biggest impact on economic growth is human capital, and that is expressed in education,” he said. “If you have one investment in your economy, education is it.”

Raymundo said the Hispanic high school drop out rate is near 75 percent and less than 10 percent attend post-secondary school. But he said the Hispanic population is doing more in terms of opening their own businesses.

“Not everyone’s life path is to college,” he said. “We need to do more with workforce training; we need to prepare our young people for the workforce.”

Midway through the panel discussion, Hinz said, “We need money to survive.” He then said Chicago is not keeping up with the nation and asked if there was indeed a positive legacy to 2016.

Preckwinkle, a self-proclaimed “avid supporter” of the 2016 bid, said she, like the rest of Chicagoans, was disappointed when Chicago lost the Olympic bid, but she said the focus needs to shift to what’s next.

“We need to focus on the aftermath of the 2016 bid,” she said. “We need to figure out what our own 2016 should be. We have to find some consensus around this effort to have our own plan as a city, as a business community, as neighborhoods, as economic development organizations to transform the communities that we live in.”

Raymundo stressed that the key factor in real economic development has been the growth of the immigrant population in Chicago. He said comprehensive immigration reform, which, he noted, President Barack Obama supported during his campaign, is necessary.

“We need to unleash some of the talent that is out there, but so many people are unable because of their immigration status,” he said. “In Illinois in 2008, the Hispanic population generated $40 billion; $370 million of that was in Chicago. This is important information to understand how to build a strong economy.”

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Chicago turned into a global economy and did well, Weissbourd said. But in the past 10 years, Chicago has become “stagnant” and is trailing behind most other cities.

“It is very important to get more strategic about what we are going to do with our metropolitan economy,” Weissbourd said. “Until the crash, our neighborhoods were by and large coming back, but the crash really knocked the neighborhoods out. Regional development is dependent on neighborhoods. You have to understand that these key components work together.”

Myers, who was a part of the the city’s Olympic bid team, said there are alternative routes to building the economy in Chicago. He said sports is one of the tools that Chicago can use to bring people and business into the city.

“By expanding on some of the strengths and capabilities here in the city, we can develop innovative programs that are not only good for our kids, but can also help be a foundation to strengthen our neighborhoods and attract further business into our neighborhoods,” Myers said.

There was no clear solution to the stalling economic development in Chicago, but Weissbourd said there is no reason for every neighborhood to reinvent the wheel.

“A lot of the same problems apply in every neighborhood,” he said. “It is time we start planning for both the short term and long term. We are headed in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go.”

Kelsey.Duckett@loop.colum.edu

The 164 members of the Illinois General Assembly who participate in the program doled out 1,571 scholarships in the 2008-2009 school year. That’s up $1 million from the previous year, when lawmakers awarded 1,509 scholarships. Although lawmakers select students, it’s the 12 Illinois state schools that cover the costs.

A ChicagoTalks investigation of the controversial program published late last year found repeated instances of scholarships being awarded to campaign donors, politically connected families and, in at least one instance, a lawmaker’s relative.

The journalists, working in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News, also identified five legislators who require scholarship applicants to register to vote, a practice one constitutional lawyer called illegal.

There’s virtually no regulation of the scholarship program; it’s left up to each of the lawmakers who choose to participate to police themselves. The odds of winning a scholarship vary widely, depending on which district a student lives in and whether a lawmaker chooses to publicize the lucrative awards, worth an average of $8,300 in 2007-2008. The average value of a scholarship increased to about $8,600 in 2008-2009.

That means students who have the hardest time paying for college too often get left out, critics say. Supporters say it’s helped thousands of students attend college over the decades. And they note that legislators take pains to ensure the selection process is as fair as possible, requiring students to fill out applications and using special committees in many cases to choose the winners.

Although lawmakers handed out 62 more scholarships last year over the previous year, an official speaking for the three University of Illinois campuses said the bigger sum came from increased tuition.

The cost shifting is one reason some lawmakers don’t participate.

Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), one of 14 state lawmakers ChicagoTalks identified last fall as not participating in the century-old program, is hoping this will be the year the legislature does away with the scholarships. Sixteen lawmakers have signed on to Bill HB4633, which Black introduced in the fall. An aide for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said late last year the senator wants to either reform the program or abolish it altogether.

Randy Kangas, the associate vice president of planning and budgeting for the University of Illinois system, has his doubts.

“These bills are put in every year,” he said, “I don’t know how much umph it has in the General Assembly.”

Kangas said the state owes the University of Illinois schools $439 million, and that employees will be taking furlough days to conserve cash. The three schools – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Springfield – waived $9.3 million in tuition for the 2008-2009 year.

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Illinois has reduced funding for early childhood education, including before- and after-school programs, by 10 percent, said a spokesman for state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), who is the vice chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. This could result in as many as 15,000 Chicago children losing eligibility for these programs.

The state’s budget deficit is up to $12.8 billion, forcing lawmakers to cut state funding. It’s these cuts that are destroying before-and-after school programs in Chicago, said Harry Wells, president of Chicago Youth Centers.

David Sinski, executive director for After School Matters in Chicago, said the cuts have significantly affected all nonprofit programs, and it doesn’t appear that the problem will be fixed any time soon.

“Given the current economic climate, After School Matters, like many nonprofit organizations, has experienced difficulty relying on continuous funding from all sources,” he said in an e-mail. “At the same time, challenging financial circumstances have escalated demand for and reinforced the need to expand out-of-school program opportunities for Chicago teens.”

After School Matters is a nonprofit organization that offers 25,000 program opportunities to Chicago teens. Sinski said the long-term goal is to double the capacity to 50,000 programs, which would be enough to accommodate about one-half of all Chicago public high school teens, specifically on the South and West Sides.

Wells said in the past year, his nonprofit organization has lost over $1 million in financial support.

“We have seven centers in Chicago that are for early childhood through teen education programs,” he said. “We lost $400,000 in state funding thus far, and it looks like that will double next year.

“That would be devastating to our program.”

Chicago Youth Centers serve eight neighborhoods: Altgeld Gardens, Riverdale, Roseland, South Shore, Grand Boulevard, Bridgeport, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.

“Our goal was to expand our centers throughout Chicago, but right now we have to focus on finding funding to keep the doors open,” he said. “This program and others like it are vital in Chicago. The young people that come to us would otherwise be on the street after school and would be subject to drug and gang violence on the streets or they would drop out of school entirely.”

Ralph Martire, director at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said the problem is just going to get worse unless state taxes are raised.

“All these elected officials seem to think they can solve the program without raising taxes, but they can’t say how,” he said. “The numbers are pretty simple, and they are staggering. It is impossible to solve this without a tax increase.”

Martire said the state’s financial situation is grave at best, and it’s just the start. Next year, he warned, these education programs are going to take a serious hit, receiving significantly less money, if any at all.

“This year, these programs can expect that they will get anywhere from 10 to 50 percent less than they thought they would get,” he said. “The following year, all bets are off. If you don’t have money, you don’t have programs.”

Jack Kaplan, director of public policy for the United Way, said his organization sent a survey to over 1,000 nonprofit organizations in Chicago. Of the 500-plus that have responded, 59 percent report they’re waiting on back payments from the state.

“These organizations were reporting over $80 million in back pay that is due to them,” he said. “The state has been slow paying any service they think they can do away with. The state feels these agencies can be a lower priority, when in fact they are necessity in Chicago.”

Kaplan said he doesn’t even want to think about what next year could bring.

“This is not a scare tactic or a ‘chicken little the sky’s falling’ thing,” he said. “The state needs a wake-up call. These before- and after-school programs, along with early childhood education, are absolutely critical for Chicago. If the state does away with the funding for these programs, the impact will be unspeakable.”

Kelsey.Duckett@loop.colum.edu

Lee remembers her first day of work last September, being nervous as she took the elevator to the 22nd floor of a Chicago high-rise. Her nerves soon settled, and now she completes daily office tasks with ease and confidence.

This is her second year participating in the corporate work-study program at Christ the King College Preparatory High School, which just moved classes to a new $28 million facility in Austin.

“I think it’s a great experience. It’s teaching me what my mom and other adults go through. I’m working to pay a part of my tuition, and I’m learning a lot of new things,” Lee said.

Lee, who — like many of the students attending Christ the King — lives in Austin, hopes to become a lawyer.

All of the 162 students at Christ the King participate in the work-study program once a week at over 160 participating employers around the city. Lee, along with the three other students in her “work-team,” alternates workdays throughout the week to provide the manpower for one full-time, entry-level position at Community Investment Corp. located in the Near West Side community.

“We saw that it was a great opportunity for students who are just coming out of grade school to know what it is to work. Even though the kids are young, they’ve done a great job,” said Monica Kirby, office manager at Community Investment Corp.

Fran Thompson, communications director for Christ the King, said the program creates an opportunity that students wouldn’t normally get from a traditional classroom setting.

“For some students, working these jobs gives them their first visit to the Loop, and there they are going up an elevator in a skyscraper to work in a financial office,” Thompson said.

Christ the King is part of a national group of 24 Jesuit schools operated by the Cristo Rey Network. Although this is the school’s second year in Austin, it moved into the new 100,000-square-foot, three story building earlier this month. The school is located at 5088 W. Jackson Blvd., on the site of the former Resurrection Parish.

Each one of the 24 Cristo Rey Network nationwide schools, including one in Pilsen, employs the work-study program.

“The premise began as a solution,” said Preston Kendall, vice-president of the corporate work-study program. “We wanted to open a college prep high school what would serve families with limited resources, and we wanted a model where we wouldn’t need to raise tuition.”

The work done by students in local businesses funds 65 percent of each student’s tuition, said Kendall. The other 35 percent is made up of family contribution and scholarships.

“It started out as a solution to a financial problem, but we soon discovered very quickly that this is a multi-faceted program. It gives students ownership of earning their education,” said Kendall.

Studies done by the Cristo Rey Network showed a need for schools in Austin, a community of more than 100,000 with high unemployment and no neighborhood public high school, said Thompson, communication director for Christ the King. It found that Austin needs 14,000 seats for students, yet only offers 7,000.

“There is a humongous shortage in this area,” Thompson said.

When at full capacity, the new school should hold around 600 students. The school, which currently has 162 students, will add a new class each year, Thompson said. It is currently running with only a freshman and sophomore class.

“We are not trying to only pull the cream of the crop students here, we are also looking for the average and above-average, hard-working students who otherwise may have fallen through the crack,” she said.

Kendall said the admissions office at Christ the King looks at academic and financial history, yet concentrates mostly on past behavior and attendance reports.

Currently, the majority of Christ the King students are coming from a few key areas, said Kendall, including: East and West Garfield Park, Lawndale, Humboldt Park and Austin.

Pauline Lipman, policy studies professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the elimination of local school councils are negatively affecting South Side and West Side communities by taking away their involvement in public education.

“In the Austin neighborhood particularly, this is a major issue,” she said. “The charter schools in Austin are public schools; the people who live in Austin are the public, and they no longer have any say of what happens in the community, and this is happening all over Chicago.”

In June 2004, Mayor Richard M. Daley launched Renaissance 2010 with the goal of increasing the number of high quality educational options in communities across Chicago by 2010 by opening 100 new schools. In order to open these turnaround schools, CPS would have to shut the doors on schools with low performance.

To date, Chicago has 94 Renaissance schools, with plans to open seven more in the Fall of 2010, said Malon Edwards, spokesman for CPS. He said each of the Renaissance schools works hard to achieve community involvement.

Edwards said Renaissance 2010 schools are still required by law to have governing boards that include parental and community involvement.

Austin High School was one of those schools. It closed four years ago, and in its place are two charter schools: Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy and VOISE Academy High School, and one performance school, Austin Polytechnical School. These are three examples of schools in a community that do not have local school councils, Lipman said.

In 1988, the Illinois General Assembly created Chicago’s local school councils, which are elected, decision-making councils that have significant power over each of Chicago’s schools, such as the ability to hire and fire principals, plan the schools curriculum and oversee all activities for the school, similar to what the school board does.

At the high school level, the local school council consists of 12 voting members, including the principal, six parent representatives, two community representatives, two teacher representatives and one student representative.

However, Chicago Public Schools officials, who are hand-selected by Mayor Daley, have never been supporters of the councils, Lipman said. In an October 2007 speech, Rufus Williams, then-CPS board president, said it was one of his administration’s main goals to eliminate local school councils.

“Not all local school councils are bad, but this is a flawed system,” Williams said in the speech. “There are many examples of adults getting in the way of the progress of children. Those of us who are responsible for the schools simply ask that we have the authority because we have the accountability for them.”

Williams said CPS is known for its leading reform.

“But this is one of the reform efforts that not one group, system or area has bothered to replicate,” he said. “We are the only system in the world that has this kind of governing structure; it must be fixed; it must be changed so that we can best operate our system for the benefit of our children.”

Rosemaria Genova, press secretary for Marilyn Stewart, president of Chicago Teachers Union, said it is these sentiments and non-transparent ideas that are hurting community involvement in public education.

“We are losing the public in Chicago Public Schools,” she said. “We have too much privatization going on in Chicago, and it is taking away any and all parent and community involvement.”

Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education said CPS is not fighting for community involvement, and they never have.

“Taking away local school councils drives a stake right through the heart of community involvement,” she said. “As a parent organization, we will continue to stand up against CPS’s total disregard for community and parent involvement. These are our children; we should have a say in their education.”

Woestehoff noted that most of the schools which have closed due to Renaissance 2010 are on the city’s South and West Sides.

“They are closing schools in neighborhoods and communities that are already struggling with being heard and finding their voice,” she said. “This is disempowering people who are historically disempowered anyway.”

Mike Klonsky, director of Small School Workshops, a non-profit organization, said in a community like Austin, the district’s complete disregard for the community has been devastating.

Klonsky, a professor in the College of Education at DePaul University, said in a community like Austin where parent involvement is limited, the loss of a local school council is immense.

“These new schools for the most part are run by private boards that are usually made up by business people,” he said. “There is little to no input from the community, and that must change.”

“The governing boards serve as local school councils, to ensure community involvement,” he said.

But Klonsky disagreed. He said Renaissance 2010 was originally created to open 100 new schools in Chicago and take a “serious stance on the value of our education.”

“But what Renaissance 2010 has turned into is basically a school-closing initiative,” he said. “The closing of schools means the end of local school councils, which means a lack of community voice and community power over how schools and education should operate.”

Check out these related stories from Chicago Public Radio WBEZ: Daley Says School Closings Are Necessary and Education Reporter Linda Lutton Talks School Closings with Host Melba Lara.

“You don’t often see a high school production that features a world premiere play directed and produced by the professional staff of a local theatre company,” says Polarity Artistic Director Richard Engling. “We’d been working with Chuck on developing his play, and when the Josephinum asked us to help them with a student production, I saw a great opportunity. Producing new work is part of our mission.”

The Society of Adventurous Women takes us to a bar in the Netherworld where only adventurous women can enter. They may not buy drinks, but instead must earn them by telling the stories of their heroic endeavors. Bartender Joseph, the only male, sends Grace O’Malley into history to recruit young women with an appetite for adventure to join their ranks, and she returns with a mysterious Young Woman who is pivotal in the lives of young women everywhere.

Playwright Chuck Palia, a retired high school drama teacher, says he was inspired not only by the novel, The Captain’s Table, in which great fictional captains from history gather to tell their stories, but also by the abundance of female talent in schools and the ironic lack of meaty roles for women. This play certainly embodies that theme.

Palia says, “I could have chosen the ‘usual suspects’ like Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Amelia Earhart, and others, but I chose to go with a few of the many adventurous women throughout the ages… I recently read an article about Amelia Earhart and the author stated that if not for the fact that Amelia mysteriously disappeared over Japanese held islands supposedly on a secret spy mission for President Roosevelt that she would have been relegated to the ranks of Hannah Reisch and Jackie Cochran.”

School president Michael Dougherty stresses the importance of opportunities for women to make themselves heard and feels that drama is one of the best ways to do that. Perhaps Josephinum alum Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street would agree. Dougherty describes the partnership with resident troupe Polarity Ensemble as mutually beneficial.

Polarity Ensemble Theatre was named “Best Emerging Theater Company” for 2008 by the Chicago Reader. At the Josephinum, Polarity has produced The White Airplane, The Rivals, A Streetcar Named Desire and their annual Dionysos Cup Festival of New Plays. The winner of last year’s festival, The Good Harvest by Lisa Rosenthal, will be presented in March at Josephinum for Polarity’s second world premiere of 2010.

The Society of Adventurous Women performs at the Josephinum Academy (Theater – second floor), 1501 N. Oakley Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60622. All performances are at 7:30pm. Previews: Friday, Jan. 15 and Saturday, Jan. 16. Regular performances: Thursday, Jan. 21and Saturday, Jan. 23. There will be a Special Performance Friday, Jan. 22 with a wine and cheese reception and a discussion with the cast and playwright after the show. Tickets for the special performance are $10. Tickets for all other performances are $5 in advance or $10 at the door. For advance tickets call the Josephinum front office at (773) 276-1261.

Established in 1890 in Chicago’s Wicker Park, Josephinum Academy serves 150 junior high and high school girls that hail from over 36 zip codes. The mission of Josephinum Academy is to empower young women to become confident, faith-filled leaders. The academy teaches its students to overcome economic disadvantages (more than 75% come from poverty) by preparing for success in college (100% college acceptance rate for graduates over the last 3 years). Tuition paid by students is approximately 10-15% of the actual cost of their education. Josephinum is in formation to become the 22nd member of the network of Sacred Heart Schools.

With the application deadline for Chicago’s best college and career academies quickly approaching on Jan. 20, Morgan reassures herself that her students will be equipped with all the necessary tools to apply.

Morgan is the director of Community Outreach and Graduate Support at Austin’s Catalyst School-Circle Rock, one of Austin’s newest college preparatory K-8th charter schools. Catalyst School-Circle Rock opened in September of last year and operates under Renaissance 2010, a Chicago initiative to close down failing schools and open 100 high-performance schools in needed communities.

“Renaissance 2010 schools give parents choice,” said Morgan.

Catalyst School-Circle Rock works hard to ensure that students and their parents are prepared for the transitional challenges of high school including equipping students with practical life skills and teaching them how to complete high school applications.

Since the majority of these students live in Austin, many of them will apply to high schools in and around the Austin community.

Since the closing of Austin High School in 2006, Renaissance 2010 has opened three smaller high schools in its former location. Each of the three smaller schools — Austin Business and Entrepreneur Academy, Austin Polytechnical Academy and Austin VOISE Academy: Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment Academy — feature specialized curriculums.

Renaissance 2010 supporters say these smaller schools will better prepare students for college and the workforce than traditional general education high schools. Each school accommodates between 560 to 600 students with hopes of having a higher graduation rate than regular Chicago high schools.

“Renaissance 2010 provides high quality education in a community like Austin. Students attending the smaller high schools are receiving a different education to get them to the next level,” said Chicago Public Schools’ spokesman Malon Edwards.

However, some argue high schools in Austin under Renaissance 2010 do not fully prepare students for college or today’s workforce.

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D-Chicago) believes Renaissance 2010 does not benefit a community like Austin. Ford has been instrumental in the fight for Austin to have its own neighborhood high school.

He and other community leaders, including Ald. Emma Mitts (37^th) and Ald. Ed Smith (28^th), believe Austin needs one high school as a way to accommodate all youth in the community. Ford has been fighting to have a high school placed at the former Brach’s candy site located at 410 N. Cicero. He believes that students in Austin needs an option of a general education high school.

“Renaissance 2010 does not address the educational issue in Austin,” said Ford. “It just closes down failing schools without providing any support for the schools to remain open.”

Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), said that although CPS claims that students in Austin’s three smaller high schools receive everything required under the CPS graduation policy, “it’s doubtful that students actually receive the basic all-around education they will need to qualify for college or for many jobs or careers.”

“These small, narrowly focused schools don’t have the staff to offer a full range of subjects,” said Woestehoff. “CPS has decided it will no longer try to offer a quality general high school experience like students in Chicago used to have, and students in the suburbs still receive.”

However, Principal Todd Yarch of VOISE Academy said that VOISE combines the use of technology, best distance learning practices and quality online curriculum to better prepare students for today’s technology-based society.

“We prepare our students to be better competitors for today’s labor force,” said Yarch. “Teaching our students online learning and technology helps them qualify for the best colleges and jobs in the city.”

Check out our related story: Austin Lacking the Schools Needed to Educate Its Students

Austin High School, the only public school in the community, shut its doors four years ago. Its successor, Austin Community Academy, which was open for one year, was shut down by Mayor Richard M. Daley and converted into three small high schools with an attendance of 1,038 students, compared to the 6,000 students the academy held.

Austin officials worry that rising crime rates will climb even higher if CPS officials don’t take action to bring back Austin High School.

About 14,000 high school-age kids live in Austin, which has a population of 117,000, making it the largest community in Chicago. But less than half the 14,000 students can attend a high school in their neighborhood. Austin has no public option for high school, forcing students to travel long distances, apply for selective magnet schools to which they have little chance of acceptance, or their final option – drop out of school entirely.

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Ald. Ed Smith (28th) have said their community needs one high school to accommodate students who live in Austin. Mitts said youth on the West Side have no high school, forcing too many of them to spend their days on the street.

On the contrary, says Kathryn McCabe, director of the Cluster Tutoring Program in Austin, a non-profit group that works with about 100 Austin students in after-school programs. She said the former Austin High School was a “horrible school” and provided “no real educational value for the students.”

“I am not sure there was much of a negative impact in shutting down a lousy school,” she said. “It was a bad school, and I am not sorry to see it go, but now we have a real problem in Austin because there aren’t enough seats for the students that live in the community.”

Malon Edwards, spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said the district has no plans in the works for opening another school in Austin.

“Austin students have opportunities at several charter and magnet schools within the community,” he said. The public options are the three Renaissance 2010 high schools: Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, VOISE Academy High School and Austin Polytechnical School.

“We have other neighborhoods that need schools as well – this is not just a problem within Austin, and we cannot approach it that way,” said Edwards.

But Mitts said there was money for a new school, noting that funding for a new school was secured through Mike Kelly, former president at Park National Bank. Since federal officials closed the bank late last year, the funds are in limbo, and Mitts isn’t sure US Bank, who took over, will honor the agreement made with Kelly.

Ald. Smith, however, said Park National Bank never committed any money for a new high school in Austin. He said the community bank was interested in funding a new YMCA on the same lot as the school.

“Park National Bank was never going to give any sum of money for a new school in Austin,” Smith said. “They wanted a collaboration with the city; basically, if the city built a new school they wanted to build a new YMCA on the same land.”

Mitts is clear on what she believes is the answer: She wants one high school open to all students in the community, and she wants it built at 1450 N. Cicero Ave.

“The answer is finding the funding and opening a school,” she said. “We need a new high school, and we need to get the process going now.”

Edwards said CPS officials have met with community members in search of a solution but said, “This is a problem that cannot be solved overnight.”

But McCabe feels differently. She said CPS’s agenda does not include building or adding schools in the Austin neighborhood, meaning they are not addressing the problem.

“There are no plans to open additional charter schools in the Renaissance 2010 plan,” she said. “There are no plans for a new high school. These kids have no where to go. It is pretty sad.”

McCabe doesn’t think one big high school is the solution; instead, she said there has been great success in charter schools.

“The emergence of these schools has been very positive,” she said. “I think the charter schools have worked well for this community because they are smaller and these students need extra help and support.”

Smith said the solution is one school for all students. He said the location is set, “the only problem now is money.”

Check out our related story: Renaissance 2010 High Schools in Austin Fight to Provide a More Quality Education for Students

Selective enrollment schools, some of the brightest jewels of Chicago’s public school system, are undergoing major changes that will affect the way students are admitted to coveted spots in the nine selective enrollment high schools scattered throughout the city. School officials said they devised the new plan in an effort to maintain diversity in the schools designed for academic achievers.

The new plan will effect the admissions cycle for the freshman class of 2010, replacing a previous race-based admissions process with a socio-economic strategy that will be factored into the applications of students with the highest composite scores.

On Dec. 16 the Chicago Public School Board adopted the new plan designed to maintain diversity in the selective enrollment high schools. The changes also affect the school district’s elementary and secondary “magnet schools,” which focus their curriculum on specialized areas and choose their students through a lottery system.

The board’s decision came after six community meetings were held from Nov. 14-21, 2009, during which school officials outlined the proposed new admissions policy. They explained that they no longer could use race in a formulated matter for admission. To replace the race-based criteria, but still maintain diversity, CPS will consider socio-economic factors such as the students’ neighborhoods, their parents’ marital status, family income, adult educational attainment and home ownership.

CPS had been considering race in admission procedures since 1980 in order to comply with a consent decree designed to desegregate the city’s schools. The new Post Desegregation Plan was implemented after U.S. District Court Judge Charles P. Kocoras vacated on Sept. 24, 2009, the nearly 30-year desegregation consent decree. Kocoras cited the city’s shifting racial demographic and 2007 decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that found schools could not use race as a factor in admission decisions after two separate cases from Seattle and Louisville, Ky. came before the country’s high court.

The local community informational meetings were held at Andrew Jackson Elementary Language Academy, Little Village High School, King College Prep, Amundsen High School, Simeon High School and Westinghouse High School.

At the meetings, the new plan drew its share of controversy for everything from its short public notice period to charges that it was unfair to various income groups, neighborhoods, races and some students who had the admission rules changed on them at the last minute. A few people asked for more selective schools to meet the demand, while at least one observed that the rush to get into the magnet and selective schools was an indictment revealing the poor performance of the majority of the district’s regular schools.

What follows is a Columbia College Chicago student project completed for a beginning level Reporting & Writing II class during the Fall 2009 session. It explores the reactions of parents, educators and community members, concerning the new socio-economic admissions plan. Columbia students were required to attend and report on at least two community meetings and focus on the selective enrollment schools. In addition to writing an article, each student was required to do a video interview of at least one person affected by the admission-policy changes. For many students, these mini-profiles are among their first attempts at video/broadcast reporting and editing. The individually edited videos were strung together into a group project. The resulting composite video provides a very small glimpse into this very complicated and controversial topic.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video reporting work done by: Merika With, Brandon Love, Noel Tijerina, Christopher Lea, Bianca Word, Veronica Harrison and Olivia Jackson.

Instructor Marla Donato

To see the Chicago Public Schools press release, “Community input results in changes to magnet, selective enrollment policy,” click here.

For more on this story, check out WBEZ Chicago Public Radio reports from November and from Dec. 16 after the plan was approved.

“Every single day it hurts that I won’t see my daddy,” said McKinnley. “Since my daddy got sentenced to prison, my life changed for the worse.”

McKinnley, her older brother and her mother currently live in North Lawndale, where she is a freshman at North Lawndale College Prep High School. After her father’s incarceration, she said she became severely depressed and began to rebel in school. She also often found herself in violent confrontations in her neighborhood.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, black children are nine times more likely than white children to have an incarcerated parent. Studies have also shown children with incarcerated parents are more likely to end up incarcerated themselves.

Dr. Betty J. Allen-Green is on a mission to change this.

With a shoestring budget, Green is helping kids in North Lawndale and beyond create a path different from their parents.

She is the founder and executive director of the Lawndale Amachi Mentoring Program (LAMP), which offers mentoring services to young people with incarcerated parents living in the North Lawndale community.

“Our object is to break the cycle of incarceration,” said Green.

According to the Council of Crime and Justice, children with incarcerated parents face several different challenges. These challenges can include the loss or change of a caregiver, limited access to a parent during and after incarceration and behavioral and emotional issues such as academic failure, juvenile delinquency and developmental issues.

LAMP was launched in 2006 by staff including Green at Theodore Herzl Elementary School located at 3711 W. Douglas Blvd. in North Lawndale. Green was the school’s principal at the time and there were several students with jailed parents, including McKinnley.

“Children need a program like LAMP because they tend to have instability, especially if it’s the mother who’s incarcerated,” said Billeka Palmer, an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer with the program. “Children need the stability in knowing that someone will be there.”

A 2006 investigation by the Chicago Reporter called “Uncounted and Unseen” found that “children of incarcerated parents are disproportionately poor, African-American and Latino, and for many, their lives are shaped by the same cycle of poverty, violence and recidivism that ensnares their parents.”

According to the Department of Justice, in 1999 an estimated 767,200 black children, 384,500 white children and 301,600 Hispanic children had a parent in prison.

“Many children with incarcerated parents become invisible victims of crime, part of an ill-defined population that often sees its needs unmet,” said study co-author Jeff Kelly Lowenstein.

Kelly Lowenstein and his colleagues found that children’s needs are not a legal priority in the judicial process. Programs for children with incarcerated parents that do exist are specifically dedicated to reuniting families before the parents’ release. However, he believes that positive intervention needs to take place in these young people’s lives throughout their parents’ incarceration.

The impact of incarceration is especially harmful in a community like North Lawndale that already struggles with so many social and economic problems. LAMP focuses mainly on the North Lawndale community, collaborating with 13 elementary schools and a high school in the neighborhood. Green also works on the issue city-wide.

LAMP was patterned after the nationally recognized Amachi program in Philadelphia. The word “Amachi” derives from Nigerian language, meaning “Who knows what God has brought us through this child.”

“We don’t know what those reforms could be. It could be anything from streamlining the process, creating a uniform process, or it could be complete abolishment. But we’re not going to make that judgment prior to the hearing,” Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.

The new Senate president, who’s taking his first public stand on the controversial scholarship program, is reviewing it now because other Senate Democrats want to make changes, Phelon said.

Rep. Bill Black, one of 14 lawmakers who doesn’t participate in the program, called the Senate leader’s pledge to do something “hopeful.”

As one of the biggest opponents of the program, the Danville Republican plans to attempt once more to kill it when the legislature convenes in early 2010. This is the fourth time Black has tried to pass legislation to abolish the scholarships, a battle that dates back to 1995.

Getting rid of the century-old program won’t be easy, though critics of the program say the conviction of a former governor, Republican George Ryan, and the indictment of another, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, could give Black’s bill a boost.

“This might have been a perk of office that for the most part could be quietly doled out but is now increasingly under a spotlight, and so I think whether it’s Black’s bill or another bill, I think probably the odds of doing away with this practice are better now than they ever have been,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said lawmakers may decide the program isn’t worth the trouble.

“There is enough bad practice going on that it hurts the reputation of the members, lessens the legitimacy of the legislature in terms of things that they do, so members are advocating it saying that it’s just not worth it,” said Redfield.

Legislators have acknowledged misuse of the scholarships since the early 1970’s, according to transcripts of floor debate in 1995 of House Bill 1498, which would have eliminated the scholarships.

Rep. Dave Winters (R-Rockford) supported the bill, saying on the House floor when the legislation was debated that the scholarships do more harm than good to the General Assembly’s reputation.

“We simply have to maintain and enhance the reputation of the General Assembly by ridding us of the potential of fraud that we have with these particular perks,” said Winters, who participates in the program.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park), another opponent, doesn’t believe it should be his job to award scholarships, so he never has.

“I have voted six times, much to my colleagues’ disappointment, to abolish it. I wasn’t voted to be Santa Claus. I was voted to be a legislator,” said McCarthy, who was first elected in 1997.

Even with House Speaker Michael Madigan’s (D-Chicago) backing, a 1999 bill to end the program failed. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said individual lawmakers have different perspectives on the issue and there just weren’t enough votes at the time to do away with the scholarships.

“There are people who believe as a legislator they have as much good judgment about scholarships as some bureaucrat at a university or bureaucrat at the student assistance commission, so there’s a diverse point of view,” Brown said.

The legislature voted again in 2003 and 2004 on legislation that sought to abolish the program, but the measures – sponsored by Rep. Naomi Jakobsson – failed both times.

Besides Black’s latest bill, Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) is pushing a similar piece of legislation to abolish the program. Franks said he hopes the two bills will put more pressure on fellow lawmakers to move on the issue and get something passed.

And in the Senate, Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) have each introduced legislation of their own to abolish the program, Senate Bill 2175 and Senate Bill 2472.

Radogno spokeswoman Patty Schuh said lawmakers are bound by very few criteria when deciding how to dole out the scholarships, and recent attention to the program may be worrying students who don’t want their names associated with controversy.

“A number of legislators will start to see that the perceived abuse is out there, that it makes the scholarships less attractive to students,” Schuh said.

Although Radogno, Brady and Franks want to stop the scholarships, they still give them out to constituents in their three districts, as do 160 other lawmakers, a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists discovered in a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News.

The scholarships add up. In 2007-2008, the most recent data available, legislators awarded 1,509 scholarships worth $12.5 million. That’s money that could be far better spent, said Black.

He used to hand out thousands of dollars in free tuition to students in his downstate district until he realized in the mid-1990s that other students at the state’s public universities were paying for the scholarships.

“It finally dawned on me one day in going to meetings and going to seminars and being one who was concerned about tuition increases, it dawned on me that I was part of the problem,” Black said.

He decided to stop awarding scholarships in his district after the 1995 floor debate. There was also the uncomfortable moment when a constituent offered to donate money to his re-election campaign if his child received one of Black’s scholarships.

Black, McCarthy and other opponents say they’ve come to the conclusion that the legislative scholarships benefit very few students at the cost of many.

“You’re sending people off for a free – whatever that means – ride and others have to make up the difference. It’s really a classic cost-shift,” Black said.

If his bill dies in the House as it has in previous years, Black won’t have another chance since he’s planning to retire at the end of 2010. But he reassures himself that future members of the General Assembly, if not the current group, will realize they can’t keep asking universities to come up with the money for these scholarships and put an end to them.

“I’ll let somebody else pick up that torch.”

Laura Lane and Nicole Leonhardt contributed to this story.

Contact: emily.capdevielle@gmail.com

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Three:

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

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Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

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Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Zakiya Smith, policy adviser in the office of the under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, says giving grant money to people who would have otherwise gone to college is not cost-effective.

David Longanecker, the president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in Boulder, Colo., says if he were in charge, he would take the $12.5 million spent in 2007-2008 on legislative scholarships and put it toward the Illinois Monetary Award program. It would be better if Illinois lawmakers gave the needy a chance to go to college rather than reward wealthy kids for doing well, Longanecker said.

He said nationwide, the best programs for helping low-income students include the Indiana 21st Century Scholars Program, the Oklahoma Promise Program and the Oregon Shared Responsibility Program because each provides incentives for students to attend college and complete their degree.

There are no graduation incentives in the Illinois’ General Assembly Scholarship program. And because neither the legislature nor state education officials track the recipients, it’s unknown if the program actually increases the number of college graduates.

Last year, about 145,000 students received an Illinois Monetary Award, or MAP grant, through the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. The average MAP grant – which can be used for tuition and fees, but not for housing, food or transportation – totaled $2,637.

That same year, the Illinois General Assembly awarded 1,509 legislative scholarships each worth an average of $8,300. But unlike the MAP grants, which require students to complete a detailed financial aid application, few legislators require applicants to list their family income or submit other related information.

One who does — Rep. Jack McGuire (D-Joliet) — said helping needy students is a priority for him.

“What I try to do is look at the family income and how many kids they have in school . . . and see what kind of financial situation people are in,” McGuire said. “I think that’s the best way to do it, at least that’s the way I do it.”

McGuire is one of 163 lawmakers who participate in the scholarship program out of the 177-member General Assembly, a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists found. Each legislator decides which criteria, like grades or financial need, to use when selecting the winners, and even whether to use an application form at all, with some merely requiring a letter from the applicant.

It’s not good public policy to have so many different ways to select scholarship recipients for the same program, experts say. And they question why some legislators prohibit winners from applying for other financial aid, like the federal Pell Grant or the Illinois MAP grant. That extra money could help needy students pay for room, board and other indirect expenses not covered by the legislative scholarship.

“If you received a Pell Grant or any other tuition waivers, you’re ineligible,” said Rep. Frank J. Mautino (D-Spring Valley).

An aide in Sen. Mike Jacobs (D-East Moline) office said the MAP grant does the same thing as the legislative scholarship, so students have to choose between the two. Jacobs’ office asks students if they received a MAP grant before awarding them a legislative scholarship.

Even some of the 60-plus scholarship winners the Columbia team interviewed during a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News say it would make sense for all lawmakers to consider a student’s financial need when awarding the free tuition.

“A lot of people who win scholarships are not as high need as other students,” said Daniel Roseland, a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who received a scholarship in 2008 from Sen. Gary Dahl (R- Peru). “I definitely think people who need the financial aid more should be getting that.”

Besides the legislative scholarship, Roseland also received a math scholarship and a need-based scholarship through his high school. Dahl, like some other lawmakers, allows legislative winners to apply for other financial aid. Still, Roseland ended up having to pay a couple thousand dollars out of pocket last year.

“I thought about reapplying, and we were told a lot of times schools don’t give you as much money because you’re on those scholarships,” Roseland said.

This year, Roseland, whose mom works for the Grundy County state’s attorney and whose dad is deceased, is paying for his education through financial aid, including a Pell and MAP grant. His out-of-pocket costs? Just $300 or so.

Laura Lane contributed to this story.

Contact: Stacey.Alletto@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Three:

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Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

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They recommend a number of changes, from developing a consistent set of standards in choosing the winners to lawmakers being more upfront in financing the program.

“Given the state’s recent history, both at the governor’s office and U of I, serious consideration should be given to the elimination or radical restructuring of the program,” says Andrew Gillen, research director at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C.

Of the 163 lawmakers who participate, each uses a unique set of criteria to select the 1,500-some winners each year. Many legislators say they choose winners based on academic achievement, community service and financial need, but in some cases, less conventional criteria is used, like requiring applicants or their parents be registered to vote.

Whichever criteria they use, a majority of lawmakers have created independent committees to choose the winners – and to distance themselves from the controversial program, which exists in one form or another in a handful of states.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, believes adopting best practices that each legislator would adhere to during the selection process could go a long way to making it a more objective program.

“You want some kind of set of rules that will establish transparency, eliminate conflict of interest and establish current, clear criteria for which this committee will make a decision,” he says.

Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, suggests the criteria be solely need-based. He believes the primary objective of a public scholarship should be to “enable students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a college education.”

Zakiya Smith, policy adviser in the office of the undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, says the Obama administration’s focus is on sending students to college who can’t afford it.

“We don’t think it’s a good use from a public policy perspective to give grant money to people who were going to go to college regardless of the money,” she says.

There is no one agency or office that regulates the program, which experts say would be one way to ferret out abuse. The Illinois State Board of Education merely processes the paperwork of the scholarship winners and is not required to do any vetting of the applicants, said agency spokeswoman Mary Fergus.

Another challenge is making sure enough people know about the program and apply.

A team of Columbia College Chicago journalists, in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News, contacted all 177 legislative offices and found that many do little or no publicizing of the scholarships, which in 2007-2008 were worth an average of $8,300. A number of legislative offices have no information at all about the scholarship on their web sites. Some lawmakers said they rely on high school guidance counselors to get the word out, while others said because the program has been around for so long, everyone knows to apply.

But Kantrowitz doesn’t believe the program has been publicized properly and notes there is no centralized place for students to apply – they have to contact their representative or senator. He suggests promoting the program on large national scholarship databases.

And he thinks the Illinois Student Assistance Commission is the “logical organization to actually run something like this.”

That’s because the state agency already serves as the main clearinghouse for college students looking for ways to pay for college. It promotes the legislative scholarship program on its web site but not in its brochures.

Paul Palian, director of communications, says it’s not his agency’s program to advertise, and the only financial aid promoted outside of its web site is what the Illinois Student Assistance Commission administers itself.

Cindi Canary, executive director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, wants the program abolished but says if it must continue, more transparency is needed because the legislative scholarships are “an incredibly valuable perk.”

“It’s not based on need or merit but on the whims of the legislator (who) gives it out,” Canary says. “There is a fundamental lack of equity at a level that I think most people understand.”

Canary suggests requiring all legislators publicize the program and establish an independent screening committee. And she wants each lawmaker to announce the names of the winners and losers, so people can determine for themselves if legislators are showing favoritism to campaign donors, political allies or other supporters.

Another main complaint: The program’s cost – roughly $12.5 million in 2007-2008, the most recent data available – falls to the universities and ultimately other students at each of the public institutions.

Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), a long-time opponent who describes the program as “ripe for trouble,” believes the General Assembly should allocate money for the program rather than pushing the costs onto the universities.

He’s not the only one.

“Wishful thinking doesn’t make money grow on trees,” says FinAid.org’s Kantrowitz. “If you’re going to create a scholarship program, you should fund it.”

But Andy Shaw, executive director of the local watchdog group Better Government Association, doesn’t think enough can be done to improve the program.

“The solution is to pass better laws,” he says. “Unfortunately, you can’t pass better laws until you have a better legislature.”

Stacey Alletto, Laura Lane and Nicole Leonhardt contributed to this story.

Contact: shawna.lent@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Three:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Stories from Day Two:

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Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

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Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

John Whitehead, president of the Virginia-based The Rutherford Institute, said lawmakers who require applicants vying for Illinois General Assembly scholarships to register are discriminating against students whose religious beliefs prevent them from participating in elections or those who simply choose not to vote.

“You have a right not to vote in America,” said Whitehead, a constitutional lawyer. “[People shouldn’t] be denied a public benefit like a scholarship because they exercise their right. Not only is it morally wrong, it’s constitutionally wrong.”

Whitehead said that if unsuccessful applicants are being denied a legislative scholarship – worth an average of $8,300 in 2007-2008 – because they’re not registered to vote, The Rutherford Institute would consider filing a lawsuit to stop the practice.

“This is totally discriminatory, and it should be thrown out the door because it’s just plain wrong,” said Whitehead.

A team of Columbia College Chicago journalists in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News identified five legislators who require applicants to submit proof of voter registration for either themselves or their legal guardians: Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington), Rep. Elizabeth Coulson (R-Glenview), Rep. Kenneth Dunkin (D-Chicago), Rep. Renée Kosel (R-Mokena) and Rep. Karen May (D-Highwood).

In all, 163 of the 177 members of the Illinois General Assembly participate in the century-old scholarship program. It’s up to each lawmaker to decide what applicants need to do to be considered for the tuition waivers that in 2007-2008 – the most recent data available – totaled $12.5 million statewide. State law requires only that scholarship winners live in the district of the lawmaker who selected them.

Rep. Kosel defended the requirement, saying she does not tell scholarship applicants how to vote or look at their voting records.

“I think it’s inappropriate not to be registered to vote in this country, and I cannot understand why anyone would question the appropriateness,” said Kosel. “It’s horrid.”

Rep. Kosel requires applicants to include a copy of their voter registration card to prove they live in her district. The introductory letter sent to students and schools states in bold font, “The application must also be accompanied by a copy of the applicant’s voter registration card (or in the event the student is not old enough to be a registered voter, a copy of his/her parent/guardian’s voter card).”

Rep. Coulson also requires that applicants register to vote to show residency. The introductory letter states: “Proof of Residency – a copy of your Illinois Driver’s License AND a copy of your Voter’s Registration if 18 or older.”

Coulson said attorneys looked over the requirement and said it was OK.

“It’s a way to verify you live in the district,” said Coulson.

But there are other ways to prove residency, like asking for a copy of a driver’s license or state identification card.

Ed Yohnka, director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said it’s understandable that legislators want to ensure applicants live in the right district, but other pieces of identification could be used.

“It is a curious requirement,” said Yohnka, noting that property owners seeking tax breaks don’t have to prove they’re registered to vote.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” he said. “And as much as any of us would like for more people to engage in and participate in the legislative process, there simply isn’t a reason or any purpose in making that compulsory, or making the receipt of aid conditional on a compulsory participation in the electoral process.”

Rep. Brady’s application asks if the student is a registered voter and if he or she has ever voted. It also states, “If you have not reached your 18th birthday, you will be expected to register to vote within one month of your 18th birthday. (Can be done by mail; print form from Internet.) Do you pledge to comply with this requirement?”

Rep. May said she asks all applicants old enough to vote to be registered.

“Not that we’re telling you to pick a party, just that you register,” said May.

But that may be exactly what students think is expected of them when they see this requirement, said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

“On the one hand, I can see them making this argument that it’s civic participation and it’s good and all that, and I do think people should vote. But I think it’s a quiet form of pressure,” said Canary. “It’s kind of like the old ward committeeman, ‘You should be registered to vote, and that means you should be voting for me.’”

Canary said she has a “degree of discomfort” with the requirement because it’s easy to determine whether someone voted in a Democratic or Republican primary.

“We have a secret ballot, but it’s only so secret,” said Canary.

One student who has received the scholarship for four years wondered if lawmakers check the voting records of applicants when making their selections. So Erika Strebel, a journalism major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, decided to vote for the person running against her state representative, Randy Ramey (R-West Chicago). Because of the state of Illinois politics, Strebel said she could see legislators favoring those who voted for them.

“You know, this is Illinois, so I thought if I voted for the other guy, would I get the scholarship this year?” said Strebel. “I voted for the other guy.”

And Rep. Ramey chose her once again to receive a free year of tuition.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said the voter registration requirement is just the sort of thing that could make students suspicious of legislators and the selection process.

“[Legislators are] just leaving [themselves] open to people connecting the dots [as to] whether it’s justified or not,” said Redfield. “I view it as being one more reason why there should be a clear set of criteria set down by law or propagated by the State Board of Education.” That way, legislators “don’t get into these kinds of situations.”

Some legal experts and good-government advocates don’t have a problem with the practice, saying it ensures students get involved in the electoral process.

Richard Briffault, the Joseph P. Chamberlain professor of legislation at Columbia University Law School, said it’s legal to restrict a scholarship to citizens, as this one does.

“One can use it as a measure of citizen engagement or something, and use it as an incentive and a reward for being registered to vote. Being registered to vote is a proxy for being a politically engaged citizen. There’s nothing offensive about that,” said Briffault, though he called the requirement odd.

Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, said making students register to vote is a good policy because it guarantees there is a level of civic engagement.

Shaw said it’s a “very fair trade” for scholarship recipients to register to vote in exchange for getting free tuition.

“I think that if you want to be the beneficiary of a legislative perk, a perk provided by an elected lawmaker, that lawmaker has a right to say that you need to be a participant in the democratic process,” he said. “And the basic participation tool is the voting booth.”

Emily Capdevielle contributed to this story.

Contact: lane.lauraj@gmail.com

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Two:

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

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Gutierrez, however, didn’t live in Ford’s district.

Illinois’ General Assembly Scholarship Program law requires winners to live in the district of the lawmaker who awards them free tuition to a public university.

Gutierrez isn’t alone. A team of Columbia College Chicago journalists in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News identified three other scholarship winners over the last five years who lived outside the district of the legislator who selected them. This discovery follows a 1998 audit by the Illinois Auditor General’s office that found 19 out of 194 scholarship recipients randomly selected for verification did not live in their nominating lawmaker’s district.

It’s not surprising that state officials didn’t catch the out-of-district winners because it’s left up to each of the 163 lawmakers who hand out the free tuition to monitor themselves. Fourteen other state legislators don’t participate.

Mary Fergus, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said her agency merely handles paperwork for the century-old program, acting simply as a middle man. “Our role is so limited . . . It’s up to the legislators to make good decisions.”

Just one board employee handles the paperwork along with other unrelated duties. Up until this fall when she retired, it was secretary Alison Harbour who processed the forms for the 1,000-plus recipients each year.

“It was tough,” said Harbour, who worked 25 years for the agency. “We were short-staffed because of the budget and all that, so it was difficult.”

There used to be one position at the board dedicated solely to the scholarship program, she said, but in recent years, financial constraints meant she had to perform other duties as well.

Harbour’s job – now being handled by another person at the state agency – consisted of making sure lawmakers and their nominees submitted two forms that contain basic information, like the student’s home address and the value of the scholarship, which in 2007-2008 was worth an average of $8,300.

She would then enter this information into databases. A review of the last six years of records entered in the electronic database – obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request – shows that over 8,000 scholarships worth more than $50 million were awarded.

But information for hundreds of students is incomplete because winners routinely fail to list the accurate value of their waivers on the forms. Harbour said it’s the universities that know the true cost of each waiver.

Harbour said she did her best during her five years managing the program to get as much information as possible but noted it’s up to lawmakers and their nominees to complete the paperwork.

No one at the Illinois Board of Education or the Illinois Student Assistance Commission – the other state agency mentioned in the scholarship law – checks to see that the forms are filled out correctly or verifies that each recipient lives in the nominating lawmaker’s district.

“We don’t have the ability to enforce,” said Matt Vanover, senior spokesman for the state education board. “That is solely the legislators’ discretion.”

Lawmakers have the option of delegating the selection of winners to a third party, a practice recommended by higher education experts concerned about the lack of regulation of Illinois’ program. That’s where the student assistance commission could step in.

But communications director Paul Palian notes his agency can perform that role only if lawmakers ask for help. The student assistance commission has never been tapped for this job, Palian said. “Historically, we have not really had any role.”

One of the program’s most-vocal opponents, Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), said if the program is to continue – he wants it abolished – the selection must be delegated to a more objective party.

“I don’t think you can reform this system,” but if it remains, Black said he prefers that it be part of the student assistance commission.

Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, notes that many lawmakers have created committees to screen and select winners. “But there has been no real system-wide push” for accountability and consistency among all members of the General Assembly, she said.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, thinks the program could be salvaged with regulation. “Either the legislature could set up a process in the statute, or they could give it to the state Board of Higher Education to set up a process that would make it uniform and minimize conflicts of interest.”

Others like Daniel Stasi, executive director of the Illinois School Counselor Association, say they don’t think more restrictions are the answer.

“I think if there are people who don’t have a better sense of ethics, they should be voted out of office by their constituents.”

In 2000, Stasi’s son received a legislative scholarship for two semesters of free tuition from then-Sen. Kathy Parker (R-Northbrook). Stasi said his son and many other students who’ve received the scholarships over the years could not have attended college without help from the “tremendous” program. He said he’s been asked to serve on a legislator’s selection committee in the past but declined to avoid any conflict of interest.

“I guess you could write regulations and restrictions, and maybe they would help,” Stasi said. “It comes down to our individual legislators exercising good judgment. And I think most of them are.”

Emily Capdevielle, Nicole Leonhardt and Nicholas Myers contributed to this story.

Contact: jay.grooms@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Two:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

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Stories from Day One:

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Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

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Day Three Stories:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

Mary Kate McLoughlin, the daughter of a Chicago precinct captain who works for state comptroller Dan Hynes and a secretary who works for the Chicago Library commissioner, said she knew to apply for a legislative scholarship because her parents “know about these things.” One of her older sisters also got a legislative scholarship.

And John Annes was able to pay for three years of medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The cost to the medical school and the rest of its students? More than $120,000 over three years.

Watson, McLoughlin and Annes were three of more than 60 students a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists interviewed during a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News. In scores of other interviews with legislative staff and lawmakers themselves, ChicagoTalks discovered there’s little regulation of the century-old program with each of the 163 participating lawmakers deciding how to distribute the scholarships, which totaled $12.5 million in 2007-2008.

Because no state agency or central legislative office oversees the program, promotion of the scholarships – worth an average of $8,300 in 2007-2008 – is spotty, with hundreds of applicants applying to one lawmaker and only a handful submitting applications to another legislator. And no one checks whether the scholarship law’s one requirement – that students live in the district of their nominating lawmaker – is followed. It’s left up to each legislator to decide why a student should get the scholarships, so a top student may be selected in one area while a C student gets picked elsewhere.

Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) doesn’t go by grades because “grades are prejudice,” she said in an interview. Grades can be based on “how you look,” nationality, background, political affiliation, “what side-of-the track” you come from and are subject to interpretation, Flowers said.

Instead, she likes to look at the “human” side. Flowers said she reads the student essay that’s part of her application to get a feel for the person, and she considers how the parents, teachers and neighbors feel about the student. Grades are not the most important thing because there are scholarships for straight-A students, but the high schools are not making other students aware of what’s available to them, the lawmaker said.

Like many of the other 162 participating lawmakers, Flowers will give students, depending on their circumstances, more than one scholarship because she wants to see a student through to graduation day. “What’s the point in me giving out a one-year scholarship?” she asks, if she can help a recipient graduate, adding “there’s always room for give-and-take.”

Higher education experts say that makes sense as long as the legislative scholarships are going to students with great financial need who would not otherwise be able to get a college degree. But lawmakers don’t require applicants to complete the detailed financial aid form that is mandatory for students wanting to get grants and loans through the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

Higher education experts and political scientists question the fairness of someone like Watson getting seven years of undergraduate and graduate education paid by the state when other equally deserving or even more needy students get nothing at all.

“There probably should be a limit on how many times you can have the scholarship if legislators are going to be allowed to give them,” said Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

But Watson, who received legislative scholarships from 2000 through 2006, says she deserved the help because she was a “broke, single white female” when she applied. Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) awarded her scholarships the first five years, then Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) gave her two more years after she moved into his legislative district.

“I’m not your average student,” said the 46-year-old Watson, who started school when she was 32.

It was nice to get a scholarship because it was “all based on academics” compared with other scholarships she knew about that required the applicant to be “poor, Hispanic or black.”

Watson said she was a waitress making less than $30,000 a year when she attended college. “In all honesty, I might have been able to pay for it,” she said, but for her that would have been “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

When Annes was applying the first time for his scholarship, he added a lengthy essay –- in addition to the shorter required one — in which he described the premature birth of his daughter earlier that year. Annes said he was lucky to have had health insurance because his daughter’s medical bills topped nearly $200,000. He saw that other parents at the hospital did not have insurance and was moved to address health care reform in his essay to Rep. Fritchey.

Annes thinks the essay may have helped him receive the scholarship, which he felt “blessed” to get. It’s “been good for me [and] my family.”

He understands the medical school and the rest of its students absorbed the cost of his legislative scholarships: “If I was more altruistic, I might say, ‘I don’t want the scholarship.’”

McLoughlin, a speech pathology major at Illinois State University, received her free tuition from Rep. Kevin Joyce (D-Chicago) in 2008. She didn’t reapply for the scholarship because “they try to give it to different people each year to help out other families.”

Her advice for other students hoping to get a year — or more — of free college tuition: “I would say for high school — be really involved and volunteer at [the] 19th Ward,” she said. “Get your name out there.”

Stacey Alletto and Nicole Leonhardt contributed to this story.

Contact: nicholas.myers@colum.loop.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Two:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

Students’ Free Ride Proves Costly to Their Classmates

Stories from Day One:

One Scholarship, 163 Ways to Dole It Out

Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Stories from Day Three:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

For the 2007-2008 school year – the most recent data available – the state’s public universities gave 1,509 legislative scholarships worth an estimated $12.5 million, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Almost 70 percent – or $8.67 million, according to Randy Kangas, the associate vice president of planning and budgeting for the University of Illinois system – was waived at the three U of I campuses.

Last year, 582 legislative scholarships or tuition waivers were given to students attending the state’s flagship school, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, while 211 waivers went to students studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago and another 21 waivers covered tuition for students at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The legislative waivers come out of each institution’s budget, leading to tuition hikes for the rest of the student body not lucky enough to nab the little-known scholarship.

Not all schools raise tuition to cover waiver costs, but students pay in other ways.

“We are not reimbursed by the state for the cost of the scholarships, so our available spending is reduced,” said Julie DeWees, the budget director for Western Illinois University in Macomb.

Some university officials are reluctant to talk publicly about the century-old scholarship program for fear of angering legislators who decide how much state funding to give universities each year. But some of the 14 lawmakers who choose not to award the scholarships are willing to talk for them.

“It hurts the budget and adds to the reason tuition goes up because it’s an unfunded mandate,” said Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, a Democrat from Urbana whose district includes the University of Illinois.

Each year, every one of the state’s 177 legislators can give two four-year scholarships. But many of the 163 participating lawmakers choose to give eight one-year scholarships to help more students, a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists found in a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News. The winners, chosen by lawmakers or special selection committees they’ve created, get tuition waived by the state school of their choice.

Instead of participating in the program, Jakobsson gives a $500 scholarship to one senior from each high school in her district. The money comes out of Jakobsson’s pocket.

“It’s not hurting anyone but my own budget,” Jakobsson said.

Two other non-participating lawmakers have universities located in their districts. Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville) represents Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, while Rep. Lisa Dugan (D-Bradley) represents Governor’s State University.

Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria) said she cannot in good conscience give the scholarship because other students and their families have to pay the costs.

“I remember what it’s like to be in college and to be struggling,” said Gordon.

Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville) said he does not participate because lawmakers don’t set aside money to pay for them, forcing the public universities to cover the costs.

Kangas said although the numbers for the current academic year aren’t yet final, the three University of Illinois campuses will waive over $9 million in tuition. The Illinois Board of Higher Education is not sure when it will release its annual waiver report for this year.

Like other officials at universities around the state reluctant to publicly criticize the legislative scholarships, Kangas would not say much beyond noting that saving that money would be beneficial but is “not really an option” because “this is state law, and we follow state law.”

Cindi Canary, executive director of the political watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said there is good reason for university officials to say little about the scholarship program, which her group opposes.

“If I was a university administrator, I might be very concerned with the cost benefit analysis. How much will I agitate the legislators in relation to how much of a burden this is?”

In recent years, the state’s public universities have faced funding cuts from the Illinois General Assembly.

Ken Zehnder, the director of state and local relations for Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, said the state used to fund 50 percent of his school’s annual operating costs but now funds only 25 percent. He said with growing pressure put on state resources, lawmakers are forced to pass on the costs to the universities. And that, he said, leads to higher tuition for students.

“Although (the scholarship program) has helped individuals, overall it has appeared to be more of an issue than a benefit,” said Zehnder.

But the benefits for those who get the free tuition are great, say many of the more than 60 scholarship recipients interviewed.

Jamel Darling, a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said the scholarship saved him from having to take out loans. Darling, who got no tuition bills for two years courtesy of Rep. Constance Howard (D-Chicago), said he’s trying encourage his younger brother, who did not receive the scholarship for his freshman year, to reapply.

Tamara Trowers received the scholarship for four years and only had to pay room and board. Trowers was so grateful for the free tuition she volunteered at Howard’s office. She’s also encouraging her younger siblings to apply.

Still, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park) says, the tuition waivers hurt more than they help.

“Giving four people a gift and having 300 people pay for it, it’s not fair,” said McCarthy, who’s never given the scholarships since being elected in 1997.

Christopher Broaddus, who attended Northern Illinois for two years but didn’t receive a legislative scholarship, agrees.

“Being one of two children to a single mother and having to pay my tuition completely out of loans, (the program) really irks me.”

Laura Lane contributed to this story.

Contact: nicole.leonhardt@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day Two:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

Stories from Day One:

One Scholarship, 163 Ways to Dole It Out

Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Stories from Day Three:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

Some students win it because they have the right connections. Others don’t face much competition for the award – a year of free tuition at one of 12 public universities in Illinois. And several recipients don’t even meet the one requirement of the state’s century-old scholarship law – residency in the district of the lawmaker who gave them the tuition waivers worth thousands of dollars apiece.

A three-month investigation by a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News found repeated instances of scholarships being awarded to campaign donors, politically connected families and, in at least one instance, a lawmaker’s relative. The journalists also identified five legislators who require scholarship applicants to register to vote, a practice one constitutional lawyer called illegal.

There’s virtually no regulation of the scholarship program; it’s left up to each of the 163 lawmakers who choose to participate to police themselves. The odds of winning a scholarship vary widely, depending on which district a student lives in and whether a lawmaker chooses to publicize the lucrative awards, worth an average of $8,300 in 2007-2008. That means students who have the hardest time paying for college too often get left out, critics say.

Supporters of the program say it’s helped thousands of students attend college over the decades. And they note that legislators take pains to ensure the selection process is as fair as possible, requiring students to fill out applications and using special committees in many cases to choose the winners.

Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) said he doesn’t make the selections himself, wanting to maintain separation from the process so no one can question the program.

“I don’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole,” the Aurora Republican said.

But all it took for Lauzen to get involved in one case was a phone call from student James Hinterlong’s father to the senator’s administrative assistant. Without filling out an application, Hinterlong was awarded a summer scholarship by Lauzen in 2008 to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hinterlong said another phone call earned him a second summer scholarship the following year.

The Elgin resident said he may have received the award because of his personal connections, explaining the summer scholarships are basically leftover money from the fall and spring funds. Though that leftover money could have been given to students who had applied and not been selected, Hinterlong bypassed them.

Lauzen confirmed that he approved Hinterlong’s scholarships without having him complete an application but insisted he doesn’t know the family.

Hinterlong is the grandson of former Aurora Ald. Kenneth Hinterlong Sr. who served on the Kane County Republican Precinct committee with Lauzen’s wife. James Hinterlong’s dad, Kenneth Hinterlong Jr., is the cousin of a current Naperville city councilman, Paul Hinterlong.

And James is not the only Hinterlong who received a summer scholarship from Lauzen. One of his cousins did, too.

Too often, the legislative scholarships – which are actually tuition waivers paid by each university – go to students who know the right people, critics say.

“They’re given out in many districts by political clout or favoritism,” said Dick Simpson, head of the department of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman. “Sometimes even to the children of state legislators, although that happens less frequently now.”

Kelly Durkin of Downers Grove, who received a year of free tuition in 2008 to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont), said she found out about the program from her dad, who learned about it through her uncle, Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Countryside).

Emily McDevitt also learned of the scholarship through a family connection. The Buffalo Grove resident said her parents are close friends of Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda), who told them about the program. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student received two years of free tuition in 2007 and 2008 from Sen. Terry Link (D-Lake Bluff).

Not all students are quite so lucky, and those most in need of financial help do not have the same connections, said Cindi Canary, executive director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

“You do a good job in school, but you’re not [from] a politically active family, maybe you’re from an economically marginal family – you’re that much more likely to not know the routes to get education in this state,” Canary said. “It’s set up to benefit insiders.”

And sometimes, scholarships appear to come with strings attached. In several cases, scholarship winners reported being asked to campaign or volunteer for the lawmaker after being selected.

Chicago resident Megan Dunne, a recipient of four consecutive scholarships, said she was asked by someone in Rep. Edward Acevedo’s (D-Chicago) office to make calls for donations. Dunne, along with a friend and fellow recipient, agreed.

“They were soliciting people to call to try and get sponsors and stuff like that,” Dunne said. “We both owed that to them.”

Dunne received a scholarship for three consecutive years at University of Illinois at Chicago and just received her fourth for Eastern Illinois University in 2008, after transferring.

Acevedo did not respond to calls requesting comment.

Rep. Mike Boland (D-East Moline) asked at least two scholarship winners from his office to march in a Memorial Day parade with him. One of the students, William Thorndike, who received a scholarship in 2006 and 2007 to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, described the parade as an unpleasant experience, saying it was hot and he didn’t know anyone. Thorndike went on to receive a summer semester scholarship in 2007 and a full year in 2008 to attend Western Illinois.

The other student asked to march with Boland, Nick Schroder of East Moline, received scholarships from the representative in 2007 and 2008 to attend Illinois State University. Schroder said he also campaigned door-to-door for the representative.

Boland confirmed the students had been asked to march in parades with him but denied that anyone had been asked to campaign door-to-door.

In 2006, the Quad-City Times reported that Boland gave scholarships to the daughter of his largest individual campaign contributor, Barb Suehl. Suehl gave $15,891 to Boland’s campaign in 2005 and 2006, and Suehl’s daughter, Alleyene, received a free ride to Western Illinois University starting in 2005. After two years, she transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her scholarship from Boland followed.

Jennifer Ernst, who recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received four years of free tuition from Rep. Karen May (D-Highland Park). “Most scholarships don’t work like that,” she acknowledged.

Ernst said the lawmaker calls her every year, enlisting her help with the 4th of July parade. So each year Ernst and her mom volunteer. Once, her dad even baked an apple pie for one of May’s events. Her parents have also donated to May’s office, Ernst said.

“Legislators definitely do use this [scholarship] as part of their overall strategy to develop positive relations with their constituents,” said Richard A. Wandling, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. “I think it’s important that the state assists its younger generation going to college . . . but this is not a good way to do it. It’s an open invitation to political mischief.”

Still, the program’s defenders insist every applicant has a chance to win a tuition waiver. But students have to know about the scholarships in order to apply. Several of the 64 scholarship winners interviewed by the ChicagoTalks team agreed the program isn’t promoted enough.

“People were often surprised when I had earned it because most people have never heard of it,” said Spring Grove’s Ashley Eberle, a Western Illinois graduate. Eberle received free tuition for three years in a row from Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch). “The legislature doesn’t do a great job at publicizing the scholarship.”

Not many of the lawmakers have posted scholarship information on their web sites. Rep. Sandy Cole (R-Grayslake) offered one explanation: some lawmakers do not know how to update a web page or use e-mail because of their age.

An aide for Rep. Kay Hatcher said the Yorkville Republican doesn’t put information on her web site because too many students out of district would apply for the free tuition.

Several legislators said they assumed people knew about the scholarships, and others said it is up to the high school guidance counselors in their districts to make sure students know about the tuition waivers.

“High school counselors, if they’re doing their job, should be aware,” said Rep. Daniel Beiser (D-Alton), whose office doesn’t promote the scholarship in any way.

When asked where more information on the program could be found, Beiser responded, “I don’t know, I’m not aware of a specific web site for that.”

Rep. Connie Howard (D-Chicago) also does not publicize the program because, after 15 years in office, “everybody in the area knows to come in and call.” Howard hosts a reception for all applicants, whether or not they win. Donated items such as luggage, clocks, dictionaries and gift certificates are given to the losing applicants because the Chicago Democrat likes to recognize everyone who applied. Last year, she reported receiving 28 applications.

“None of the state reps publicize it,” said Ken Lipinski, legislative assistant for Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-Summit), because most people know about it.

However, Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), who stopped handing out the scholarships in 1995 and has been pushing ever since to abolish them, said it’s not in a legislator’s best interest to publicize the program.

“It would bring in more applications from non-contributors and non-friends,” the Danville Republican said. “The more applicants a lawmaker gets, the harder it is to have influence over who wins the scholarships.”

Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Westmont) said most students in her district find out about the free tuition by word-of-mouth.

That’s not how it should work, especially when public money is involved, critics say.

“The thing that really rubs me wrong about these scholarships is you’ve got to know how the system works to know about them,” Canary said. “It’s not based on need or merit but on the whims of the… legislator.”

To avoid the appearance of impropriety, some lawmakers choose to distance themselves from the process by appointing selection committees.

“Because of the controversy surrounding these scholarships, I never look at the scholarships as they come in. I do not see the application at all until the committee has chosen the winners,” said Rep. Richard Myers (R-Macomb).

Myers gets involved only at the end, when it comes time to notify the winners. He makes the calls.

It still doesn’t sit right with Rep. Black: “I’m not naïve. Even if you have a committee, you can influence the committee.”

A majority of the participating lawmakers appoint a committee to pick the winners. But little public information about these committees is available, so it’s impossible to determine whether they’re truly independent.

Time after time, lawmakers or their aides declined to provide details about the selection panels. Some offices told reporters they did not have to, while others said they wanted to protect committee members’ privacy.

The lone exception: Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) freely offered the names and occupations of her committee members without hesitation.

The secrecy surrounding the committee is another reason critics say the publicly funded tuition waivers should be overhauled or eliminated.

“The scholarship should be funded; it should have some strict, strong guidelines behind it,” Black said. “Let those who know how to administer scholarships administer the scholarships, not lawmakers.”

Stacey Alletto, Karlie Baker, Emily Capdevielle, Jay Grooms, Laura Lane, Shawna Lent, Nicole Leonhardt, Nicholas Myers, Jeremie Benoit Rosley and Sean Stillmaker contributed to this story.

Contact: elida.coseri@loop.colum.edu
 and patrick.smith2@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day One:

Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Day Two stories:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

Students’ Free Ride Proves Costly to Their Classmates

Day Three stories:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

The journalist wanted to know how Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) selects students in her Bronzeville district to receive free tuition at 12 Illinois universities.

A team of Columbia College Chicago reporters, in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News, contacted the offices of all 177 members of the Illinois General Assembly to find out how millions of dollars in scholarships get handed out each year. The journalists wanted to know how each legislator publicizes the scholarship, how students get selected and other basic information about the program.

The journalist called back on Sept. 25, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

The reporter had been told that she needed to speak with an aide named Jan. Having left her contact information for her before with no reply, she asked if it was possible for the secretary to give her Jan’s direct line. She said, “No, no, I’m going to have her call you” and took down the reporter’s information.

Jan never called, nor did anyone else from Sen. Hunter’s office.

Reporters got the same response – or lack of response – from 23 other legislative offices that were contacted starting in mid-September. Seventeen representatives and seven senators have not provided basic information about the legislative scholarships, which totaled $12.5 million for the 2007-2008 school year. Eighteen non-responders were Democrats. Eleven serve as officers in their respective houses, including Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and House Deputy Majority Leader Arthur Turner (D-Chicago).

Terrance Norton, director of Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Center for Open Government, thinks the offices’ unwillingness to respond could lead the public to believe legislators have something to hide.

“As we all know, democracy depends on trust,” Norton said. With so much skepticism in government today, lawmakers not providing this information “breeds more distrust,” he said.

The state’s Freedom of Information Act exempts state lawmakers, so they can choose not to provide information about the scholarships. But that law will change Jan. 1, when each of the 177 legislative offices will be subject to FOIA and required to designate a staffer to handle requests, the attorney general’s office says.

“I think a lot of lawmakers consider these requests to be a nuisance and a waste of time, and an infringement and an intrusion,” said Andy Shaw, executive director of the watchdog group Better Government Association. “They need a lesson in what freedom of information is about.”

Most legislative offices – either an aide or in several instances the lawmakers themselves – promptly answered questions about the century-old scholarship program.

And some lawmakers, like Sen. Deanna Demuzio (D-Carlinville), provided information beyond what had been requested over the phone. Demuzio gave details about the essay questions in her application, the scoring process used in judging each application and the geographic distribution of winners in her district.

An aide in Sen. Bill Brady’s (R-Bloomington) office e-mailed a copy of his selection committee’s scoring sheet. And Rep. Julie Hamos’ office mailed a copy of the Evanston Democrat’s application form.

But other legislators and their staffs weren’t as open.

Eight calls over a month were made to Rep. Betsy Hannig (D-Litchfield), a first-year legislator who succeeded her husband. Attempts to contact her district office went mostly to voicemail. When the reporter finally reached Hannig at her residence, the lawmaker became annoyed, telling the journalist to get the information from the State Board of Education. The state agency collects the names of the winners each year but cannot answer questions about how each legislator administers the program.

Hannig refused to answer questions and requested the questions be faxed to her district office. When the reporter asked if there was someone else in the office who could provide information, Hannig said: “I don’t want you talking to my legislative assistant about this.”

The journalist faxed the questions Oct. 7. Hannig never replied to the fax, and her office did not respond to four calls made in the following weeks.

Staffers in other legislative offices voiced suspicion or concern about what was going to be done with the information. On Sept. 23, Pastor Juarez, an aide to Rep. Susana A. Mendoza (D-Chicago), asked the reporter: “Is this an exposé? Are you going to put this in a bad light?” He said he e-mailed the journalist’s contact information to the representative.

On Oct 16., a second reporter called the office. Juarez said he wasn’t comfortable speaking on the topic or with what the reporters were trying to do. He said speaking with the reporter was “not a priority” at the time. Mendoza’s office never provided the information.

Rep. Constance Howard (D-Chicago) provided information but asked the reporter why she was being contacted and why the reporter wasn’t calling her own representative.

The open government center’s Norton said legislators don’t need to respond instantaneously, but they should honor requests once they’re aware the public wants information. He thinks that legislators “shouldn’t take advantage of their exemption [from FOIA], especially when there’s public interest. They work for us, they work for you.”

Cindi Canary, executive director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said at a minimum, detailed information about the scholarship program should be prominently posted on each participating legislator’s web site and displayed in every high school in the legislative district.

And she’d like to see even more details about the program publicized, like over time how the scholarship is distributed throughout a legislative district.

“Does it always go to one high school? How do [lawmakers] deal with campaign contributors and staff [whose relatives apply]? What are they doing to ensure that this is for the public and not for the insiders?”

Stacey Alletto, Emily Capdevielle, Elida Coseri, Jay Grooms, Laura Lane, Shawna Lent, Nicole Leonhardt, Nicholas Meyers, Jeremie Benoit Rosley, Patrick Smith and Sean Stillmaker contributed to this story.

Contact: karlie.baker@loop.colum.edu

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day One:

One Scholarship, 163 Ways to Dole It Out

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Day Two stories:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

Students’ Free Ride Proves Costly to Their Classmates

There’s just one main requirement in the century-old state law that created the legislative scholarship program: Applicants must live in the awarding lawmaker’s district. Beyond that, each of the 163 lawmakers who participate can award the scholarships however they see fit, including giving the tuition waivers to members of the same family.

Take the Maier sisters. Mallory and Paige Maier of Crossville were awarded free tuition in 2008 for a year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, courtesy of Rep. David Reis (R-Olney). They met the lawmaker through their father, White County Sheriff Doug Maier. Mallory Maier said in an e-mail that she got to know Reis, a local Republican like her dad, by volunteering for political campaigns and “going to all the dinners with my father during his election.”

Then there are the Paceys of Paxton. Sarah, Edward, John and Robert Pacey each received a legislative scholarship from Rep. Shane Cultra (R-Onarga); they’re the offspring of Ford County Presiding Judge Stephen Pacey.

When asked about his children’s scholarships, Judge Pacey said he’s familiar with The Chicago Tribune report that found lawmakers gave at least 140 scholarships to the relatives of their campaign donors and 87 to family members with other political ties. But he insisted that’s not how his three sons and one daughter were awarded legislative scholarships.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” he said. “You want to look at Chicago lawmakers instead.”

Critics say they’re not surprised that politically connected families have benefited from the little-known program that waives tuition and fees each year for hundreds of students.

Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman, said he doesn’t want to discount the possibility of brilliance running in a family, but he remains skeptical.

“Many of these just go to families with clout,” Simpson said.

Cindi Canary, executive director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, agrees: “You’ve got to know how the system works to even know that legislators have got the power to hand these things out . . . It’s set up to benefit insiders.”

Like other Illinois families fretting about how to pay the rising cost of college, at least one household with multiple scholarship winners was looking for ways to save money.

Barb Calderone of Plainfield wanted to lower expenses for her two college-age children, especially her son Phil, a sophomore electrical engineering major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“She’d done some research online, looking for scholarships,” the 2008 scholarship recipient said. Thanks to the legislative waiver, he ended up needing less aid for living expenses and didn’t have to worry about finding a job his freshman year, the only year he received the scholarship.

“My mom is very on top of scholarships,” said his sister Lauren Calderone, a 2004 recipient. “She was always asking me if I’d filled out the application yet.”

Both scholarship recipients said neither of their parents is politically involved.

A 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois, Lauren Calderone said the only odd thing about the scholarship process was that Rep. Tom Cross (R-Plainfield) didn’t promote it more. “I had to go looking for it, and then I literally had to go to his office to pick up the application.”

That, said political scientist Simpson, is part of the problem. “There aren’t that many applicants; no one knows how to apply for the program, so it fails on all counts.”

Rep. Bill Black, a long-time opponent of the legislative scholarships who’s pushing legislation to eliminate them, said lawmakers don’t publicize the program because they want only a very small number of applicants. “The more applicants they get, the harder it is for them to control who wins,” the Danville Republican said.

Government watchdog advocate Canary agrees, calling the program “a perk of office that was to be quietly doled out.”

Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, said the program should be abolished. Barring that, he said, the application process needs a “third party participating in the review so that it’s clear that they’re not being given away on political grounds.”

Dozens of lawmakers use review committees to select winners, a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists found in a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News. But other legislators do not.

Earlier this fall in The Daily Illini, Eric, Katie and Kelsey Green defended the program, writing that critics should “advocate for positive change, perhaps using our representative as a model; don’t just fling insults without regard for who you hurt.”

The three siblings – Eric, now a grad student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Katie, a junior at the school and Kelsey, a freshman – each received a scholarship from Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) but “not because of free rides to politically connected students,” they wrote. The legislative scholarships have made college affordable for the trio, whose parents now work as a bookkeeper and a building code inspector.

Katie Green said in an interview that her family learned of the scholarship through the guidance department at Antioch High School, which receives application forms each year from Rep. Osmond’s office.

Osmond, like many of the 162 other participating lawmakers, appoints a third-party committee to handle the selection.

“Joann is not even aware of the applicants,” Katie Green said. “The committee doesn’t have any sort of loyalty to her. It’s based on merit.”

Laura Lane contributed to this story.

Contact: jbrosley@gmail.com

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day One:

One Scholarship, 163 Ways to Dole It Out

Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Scholarships for Some Grad Students a Big Burden for State and Schools

Day Two stories:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

Students’ Free Ride Proves Costly to Their Classmates

Day Three stories:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

Over the last five years 1,256 legislative scholarships were given to graduate students, worth $17.6 million, according to annual reports compiled by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Close to 300 recipients were enrolled in dental, law and medical school at eight state universities.

In return, graduate winners are asked to do nothing. That’s in contrast to most full-ride dental, law and medical school scholarships offered around the country that require students to work in underserved areas once they’ve completed their degrees.

For instance, the National Service Corps scholarship offered through the U.S. Human Resource and Services Administration requires a minimum two-year commitment.

“Many places across the country are undersupplied with medical practitioners, particularly primary care doctors, dentists and nurses,” said David Bowman, spokesman for the Health Resources and Service Administration.

The federal agency received $300 million from the recent stimulus act that will be used to expand the number of scholarships offered and grad school loans repaid.

That’s the kind of commitment that should be considered for the Illinois legislative scholarship winners, higher education experts say.

The 163 Illinois legislators who participate in the century-old scholarship program mostly fund undergraduate students who live in their districts. District residency is the only requirement in the state’s scholarship law. In 2007-2008, the most recent data available, 53 lawmakers awarded the more generous graduate scholarships.

Over the last five years, Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) has given the greatest number of scholarships to graduate students. Since 2003, she’s awarded 20 one-year scholarships for dental, law and medical school students.

“It just so happened” that way, said Sonia Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the senator. Martinez’s scholarship selection committee “may have chosen [graduate students] because their needs are greater,” Sanchez said.

An independent committee chooses the recipients based on financial need, academic achievement, community activism and a desire to give back, Sanchez said, and the senator is not involved in the selection process. The office receives close to 30 applications a year, Sanchez said.

Sens. William Haine (D-Alton) and Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont) appear to be the only two participating legislators who decline to give scholarships to students attending dental, law or medical school, a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists found in a three-month investigation done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News.

“It’s too heavy of a burden on schools,” Haine said.

In 2008, 67 medical students at the University of Illinois at Chicago received legislative scholarships worth $2.2 million. Yearly tuition of $33,086 was waived for the legislative scholarship winners, forcing the medical school to make up the difference.

That same year, 18 dentistry students at the University of Illinois at Chicago received fee waivers worth $648,000. Annual tuition costs about $36,000, with an additional $12,000 for fees and instruments.

Students are encouraged to apply for as many scholarships as possible, with recipients awarded as little as $500, said Darryl Pendleton, associate dean for student and diversity affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago dental school.

But there are “very few” full-ride scholarships available, Pendleton said, noting, “the school receives less tuition revenue because of the [legislative] scholarships.”

Cheon Joo Yoon, a second-year dental student at the school, is a two-time scholarship winner. The 34-year-old South Korean immigrant came to America in 2001 to pursue his dream of becoming a dentist.

“In Korea, I couldn’t get into to dental school, then I got a second chance in the United States . . . Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to provide people in need with free health care,” he said, though the scholarship doesn’t require him to do so.

Henry Sondheimer, senior director of student affairs at the American Association of Medical Colleges, said the scholarships he’s familiar with – those given on merit or financial need – usually require recipients to work in a certain area for a set amount of time after graduation. Smaller states with fewer medical schools tend to require working in areas that have a shortage of doctors, Sondheimer said.

Illinois has no such requirement, though some of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s colleagues have told him they hope graduate students they’ve selected for the scholarship do something in return for their free tuition.

The Orland Park Democrat refuses to participate in the program. One reason, he says, is the public universities and the rest of the students end up paying for the scholarships. And the value of the scholarships vary drastically, based on whether the student is getting an undergraduate degree or going to graduate school.

Someone could receive a $30,000 scholarship for dental school, McCarthy said, and despite what his colleagues may hope, he notes there’s no guarantee the student will return to the district to pay it back.

Laura Lane contributed to this story.

Contact: sstillmaker@gmail.com

View more than 6,000 scholarships awarded by current lawmakers.

Other stories from Day One:

One Scholarship, 163 Ways to Dole It Out

Evasive State Legislators Dodge Questions About Scholarships

Clout or Coincidence? Some Legislators Keep General Assembly Scholarships All in the Family

Day Two stories:

Some Lawmakers Turn a Right into a Requirement

Nobody’s Watching: Illinois Lawmakers Alone Decide How to Give Millions

No Method to the Madness: State Scholarships Award Some Students More than Others

Students’ Free Ride Proves Costly to Their Classmates

Day Three stories:

State Legislative Scholarships Could Be Eliminated

For Richer or Poorer? Legislative Scholarships Should Target the Needy

Experts Suggest Changes to Legislative Scholarships

In September, Henry Ford Power House Charter High School opened its doors.

Power House High is located inside of the Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center. The public charter school is the result of a $40 million rehabilitation and the adaptive reuse of the Sears power plant. The project was funded by tax credits for historic buildings and new market tax credits, according to Kristen Dean, executive director of the Homan Square Community Center Foundation, which owns the building.

“Our school is part of a historical site,” said Power House principal Kophyn Alexander. “We are a green school, one of the few in the city of Chicago.”

Throughout the school building, the team of architects implemented energy-saving features including geothermal walls and retrofitted historic windows. The school also includes a planted “green” roof, low-flow toilets, solar-powered sinks and energy-efficient skylights.

“Power House High is designed to be a LEED Gold, highly energy efficient building,” said Dean. The foundation partnered with the Henry Ford Learning Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating public schools in public spaces. Their goal was to design an exemplary school that prepares students for college and careers.

The school is home to 260 freshmen and sophomores, 30 more than originally planned, according to Alexander. The plan is to add another grade each year until Power House High is a four-year institution. The school is open to all Chicago students, selected by lottery if there are more applicants than seats. Applications for freshmen, sophomores and juniors for the 2010-2011 year are now available in the office.

“I think that my school is special because it used to be a part of a very important industry,” said Power House sophomore Regan Taylor. “Sears is still around but I know it was even popular when my parents were my age.”

The project began in January 2007. The process of renovating a 100 year-old power generating station into a contemporary, LEED-certified high school had its difficulties. However, the developers were “undaunted,” according to the project website.

Power House High’s design was based on the award-winning Henry Ford Learning Institute located in Dearborn, Mich., a national cultural attraction founded in 1997. Now, a Chicago school shares the same mission to educate students academically and prepare them for the global community of the 21st century.

“It was a complex process to see what use that type of building could serve to the North Lawndale community,” said Rose Grayson, an associate at FARR Associates, the principal designers of the project.

The building was set up for every room to tell a different story. The Great Hall, an area for both students and other members of the community, still houses the original 40-ton gantry crane and rail system from the original power house.

A project that started off as a mission to put an empty building to use turned into a recovery of a place that now contributes to North Lawndale’s youth and their futures.

“Power House High School is truly a power in the community,” said Alexander. “It provides collaboration with teachers, students and the community. It’s a place where everyone can benefit.”