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Archive for the ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)’ Category

University of Chicago Waives Tuition for Families Making Under $250,000

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, New Normal?, The New York Times, The Other Half on May 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The University of Chicago campus. | E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune, via ZUMA Press Wire

By Vimal Patel | The New York Times

The University of Chicago will provide free tuition to students of families earning less than $250,000 a year, creating one of the most generous financial-aid offers in the nation at a moment when lawmakers and parents are scrutinizing the value of a college degree.

Colleges have been in a race to raise the income limits for free tuition in recent years. The university’s announcement on Wednesday explained the move as a way to make an institution with a $98,000-per-year sticker price more accessible to students from modest backgrounds.

“By deepening our commitment to affordability, we are helping to ensure that the brightest minds can join us,” Paul Alivisatos, the university’s president, said in a statement.

Chicago joins Princeton in raising its threshold for tuition to $250,000. Other selective schools have raised their income limits for free tuition to $200,000 in recent years, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.

Article continues here.

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Parent sues District 300 over student’s gender transition

Posted in 300, Daily Herald, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Mad Cows, Politics, School Districts on May 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By Alicia Fabbre | Daily Herald

Algonquin-based Community Unit District 300 is being sued by a parent who claims her constitutional rights were violated when the district aided her child’s gender transition without parental involvement.

The lawsuit was filed this week in federal court on behalf of the mother of a high school student.

“This case challenges a public school district’s policies, practices and customs of subjecting minor students to psychological and identity-based interventions, while deliberately excluding their parents from participation, consent and even knowledge,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Naperville attorney Ajay Gupta.

The lawsuit, which refers to the mother only by her initials, seeks class action status to include other District 300 parents who dealt with similar situations.

District 300 officials did not return repeated calls for comment this week. When reached by phone, two District 300 school board members declined comment and directed calls to the district’s communications team.

Gupta also did not return calls for comment.

The lawsuit was filed less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into more than three dozen Illinois school districts, including Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155, over policies and curricula related to gender and sexuality.

According to the lawsuit, District 300 “socially transitioned minor students at school” while withholding information from parents.

Report continues here.

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Illinois combined state, local tax rate tops the country

Posted in Cost of Living, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Overhead, Pension Funding, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on May 13, 2026| 1 Comment »

By Brennan Park | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinoisans continue to pay the highest combined state and local tax rate in the country, according to WalletHub.

Effective state and local tax rates totaled almost 17% for a median Illinois household last year, compared with the national average of just over 11.02% and higher than No. 2 New York, at 14.95%.

The median amount of state and local taxes for an Illinois household was $12,538 last year, fourth-highest in the country. The national median was around $8,949. (These amounts use a different household measurement.)

Illinois’ burden is driven by property, sales and excise taxes that exceed national averages and those in neighboring states.

Property taxes are especially high, with an effective rate of 1.92% of the value of a typical home, more than double the national median of 0.89%.

Sales taxes are also elevated in Illinois, with a 6.25% state rate and a nearly 9% combined state and local rate on average.

Article continues here.

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Barrington Hills Park District (Riding Cult) meets tonight

Posted in Agendas, Algonquin Rd, Animal Welfare, Barrington Hills Park District, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Commercial Horse Boarding, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Financial Statements, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, FRVPC, Horizon Farm, Horse Boarding, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Massbach Hounds, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Riding Center Advisory Committee, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Taxes, The Other Half, Transparency, Unions on May 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The Barrington Hills Park District Board/Riding Cult of Barrington Hills will hold their monthly meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 6:00 PM. Some topics on their agenda include:

  • Approval of the April 2026 Park Board Meeting Minutes (Not provided)
  • Treasurer’s Report Review, Approval of the April 2026 Park District Financials (Not Provided)
  • Advisory Committee Report (Not Provided)

A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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WATCH: Ex-rep sues Pritzker, Illinois over race-based congressional map

Posted in Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, SNAFU, Springfield, The Center Square, The Chicago Way, Transparency, Unions on May 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The entrance of the federal court in the Southern District of Illinois is shown in East St. Louis. Photo: Greg Bishop / The Center Squar

By Sean Reed | The Center Square

Illinois’ congressional district map is being challenged over what some argue are unconstitutional racial requirements for districts. A former Republican state representative sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the State Board of Elections late last week.

Jeanne Ives, a former representative of the state’s 42nd district, brought the case backed by J. Christian Adams, president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of Illinois, the official complaint claims congressional maps drawn after the 2020 U.S. Census are unconstitutional because the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 mandates the creation of “racial districts.”

Ives told The Center Square Daily that state Democrats have brazenly moved to draw maps based on racial lines.

“It’s very obvious to anybody looking at Illinois maps, and Illinois law, that these districts are in fact – they use race to design the districts and the SCOTUS decision makes it abundantly clear that you just can’t do that anymore,” Ives said.

Ives said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which determined Louisiana’s district map as unconstitutional because of an over-reliance on race, is what has explicitly made it clear that Illinois’ congressional map as unconstitutional.

Report continues here.

Related: “U.S. Supreme Court decision puts brakes on Illinois redistricting amendment”

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Obama Presidential Center helped by $123 million in public infrastructure improvements

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Cook, County, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Look For The Union Label, Politics, Taxes on May 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The former Cornell Drive, which ran between the Obama Presidential Center’s museum tower and the lagoon, was removed as part of the campus’ publicly-funded infrastructure improvements. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

By Lee Bey | Chicago Sun*Times

When the Obama Presidential Center opens next month, and its funders are honored and congratulated, there are two major financial contributors worthy of a bow or two: Chicago and Illinois taxpayers.

The Chicago Department of Transportation said it has spent $123.3 million since 2022 on capital projects aimed at remaking the roadways and green space in Jackson Park and around the center.

And there’s still more work to be done. The final public infrastructure costs are likely to approach $200 million.

The costs are not part of the presidential center’s privately-funded $850 million price tag.

“The Chicago Department of Transportation has delivered a series of roadway and mobility improvements in and around Jackson Park in coordination with the Obama Presidential Center,” CDOT said in a statement to the Sun-Times.

One major change included ripping up a half-mile of Cornell Drive between Midway Plaisance and Hayes Drive. The center’s landscape architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, turned what was an obtrusive six-lane highway ripping through Jackson Park into walkable green space that links the Obama campus to the park’s historic lagoon to the east.

Other projects included adding a third southbound lane on DuSable Lake Shore Drive between 57th and Hayes drives; reworking Hayes Drive east of Stony Island Avenue that involved reconfiguring intersections at Cornell, Richards and DuSable Lake Shore drives; and adding a pump station to help fix flooding at the 59th Street pedestrian underpass.

Article continues here.

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Editorial: A cautionary tale from UK local elections as Brits move to the extremes

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Elections, New Normal?, OP/Ed, Politics on May 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

People walk past a polling station sign during the United Kingdom’s 2026 local elections in London on May 7, 2026. (Kin Cheung/AP)

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

Britain held its local elections Thursday, and one headline was the ascendency of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform party over the traditional Conservatives. But the day hardly brought succor for the Labour Party; the traditional party of the left lost ground in key constituencies to the Green Party, historically a marginal entity in the United Kingdom but now the party of choice among 18-to-24-year-old voters.

Even Labour’s first minister of Wales, Baroness Morgan of Ely, lost her seat.

Beleaguered British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, meanwhile, was just about hanging on. To many minds, he is a dead man walking, soon to be abandoned by his Labour Party.

What is the takeaway? The results certainly look dismal for moderates of any persuasion; the Reform and Green supporters hate each other with a passion. They’re also a vote of no confidence in the legacy parties.

And they’re further evidence of how Britain, not unlike the U.S., is now deeply divided between the affluent, educated urbanites who embrace progressive ideals and government spending — in Chicago we’d call them lakefront liberals — and the population living in rural areas and hollowed-out factory towns who feel abandoned by the elite establishment, many of whom abhor Britain’s porous borders and lament what they see as an immigration-driven collapse of both social services and a traditional British life.

Age came into play, too. Despite a popular leader in Kemi Badenoch, the traditional Conservative Party increasingly is seen as a gerontocracy appealing only to the aged. Labour has some of the same problems, having lost a hefty chunk of its traditional working-class supporters. All of the energy is at their flanks.

Editorial continues here.

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Mayor Johnson determined to block Bears’ move to Arlington Heights

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb Bunny, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, Overhead, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Rendering of the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights. | Provided by Manica Architecture

By Fran Spielman | Chicago Sun*Times

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.

Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.

“If we’re asking anyone to tighten the belt, we should look at whose belt is exploding — and that’s the ultra-rich. As their bellies get fat and our people are starving, this is not the time to balance the budget off the backs of working people,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.

“The type of tax structure that they would set up for large corporations and billionaires without a clear pathway to provide certainty as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that’s a mismatch there. And quite frankly, the infrastructure they’re even discussing in the suburbs — those infrastructure needs have been present on the lakefront for a very long time.”

Hours before joining fellow Chicago-area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House on April 22.

Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to Northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.

Article continues here.

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District 220 Board of Education meets tonight

Posted in Agendas, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Data Center, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, His Master's Voice, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois State Board of Elections, Immigration, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Look For The Union Label, Open Meetings Act, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Unions, Video Streaming, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Reports
  • Board Committee Reports: Finance Committee, Facilities Committee, Policy Committee, Legislative Committee, Equity Committee, Health Insurance Committee, Referendum Construction Steering Committee, Safety & Security Committee
  • Revised Personnel Report
  • Minutes
  • Consideration to Approve Paper Contract
  • Consideration to Approve Second Reading of Board Polic(ies)
  • Consideration to Approve the Reciprocal Reporting Agreement with the Sheriff of Lake County
  • Social Media Awareness and Digital Citizenship Update

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live streamed on the district YouTube channel.

Related: “Over $100,000 in Special Interest Funding gifted to 220 Board member’s campaign in failed bid for State Rep job,” “New Evidence of Chan Ding’s Policy Violations and Conflicts of Interest,” “The D220 Board of Ed gets another ‘F’ in accountability & transparency,” “The Real Issue in Barrington 220 Isn’t Parking or Levies — It’s Leadership Culture,” “BOARD OF ED VOTES, MEMBER CHAN DING MADE FLAGRANT POLICY VIOLATIONS – Part 2,” “BOARD OF ED VOTES, MEMBER CHAN DING MADE FLAGRANT POLICY VIOLATIONS,” “District 220’s Lack of Transparency (Updated),” “District 220’s Lack of Transparency”

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Illinoisans may soon need registration, title, license to use e-bikes, scooters (?)

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), E-bikes, FUBAR, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Springfield, Taxes, The Center Square on May 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A man stands with his electric bike on a trail cutting through a grassy field. | Photo: Nick van der Vegt / Unsplash

By Sean Reed | The Center Square

Illinoisans may soon be required to register their e-bikes, motorized scooters and other various modes of transport with the DMV if a popular piece of legislation in Springfield passes.

Having bipartisan support, the Illinois Secretary of State said there would also be new regulations, age requirements, and fees associated with using the devices.

Senate Bill 3336, an initiative backed by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, would require a person to be at least 16 years old, licensed to drive, and to register certain electric micromobility devices with the state before they can legally be operated.

According to Giannoulias and lawmakers in favor of the bill, they are seeking regulation in response to a rise in accidents involving the various vehicles.

“The rise in serious crashes, injuries, and confusion about the law makes it clear that doing nothing is not an option. That’s why our bill is so critical. Nationwide, injuries and fatalities have soared an alarming 300% in just three years from 2019 to 2022,” Giannoulias said.

Vehicles that fall under the purview of the new law include e-bikes with a power rating between 750 and 8,000 watts, e-scooters, and any other electric-powered device primarily used for transportation and that moves under 28 mph.

Existing regulations for low-powered motorized vehicles will not be changed, according to the secretary.

The bill excludes toy vehicles (But WHY?) and mobility assistance devices.

Article continues here.

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