It’s rare to see city leaders in Chicago take an open, unabashed stance on the collapse of literacy. To complain is deemed as too political, too racist or too anti-public schools. So it’s refreshing to see Willie Wilson, a successful businessman and leader of the black community, call for a literacy initiative “with the goal of getting 100% of Black students reading at grade level.”
As predicted, the teacher mass exodus never happened. Whether boom or bust, the teaching profession has one of the lowest turnovers of any profession.
Meanwhile, Illinois’ K-12 enrollment is down over 100,000 students since 2018.