State lawmakers left the capitol on Thursday without finalizing a plan to put in motion the 2021 law that seeks to diminish mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools. Competing plans from the state Senate and House are cause of the delay.

Donors receive state income tax credits for their contributions to the Invest in Kids program, which helps some 9,600 students across Illinois attend private and trade schools. But barring last-minute legislative action, authorization for the program runs out at the end of 2023.

The end to mayoral control of the Chicago Board of Education could come sooner than expected.

A year from now, Chicago voters will for the first time decide who will run the city’s schools. But first, Illinois legislators have a lot of decisions to make about how that process will work. Chief among their responsibilities is dividing Chicago into 20 districts.

Elementary and secondary students in Illinois showed consistent improvements in their reading and math scores while the state’s high school graduation rate reached a 13-year high for the most recently concluded school year.

October marks 60 years since nearly 250,000 CPS students and their parents flooded the streets of Chicago in what’s known as Freedom Day — a massive protest of segregation in Chicago Public Schools and the superintendent at the time, Benjamin Willis.

Nearly 600 part-time faculty members at Columbia College walked off the job Monday. The faculty union and administration have been contract bargaining since May.

State Sen. Robert Martwick, a Democrat who represents parts of the city’s Northwest Side, said if Chicago wants a diverse school board, it needs to remove barriers that would prevent some residents from running for board seats.

Vowing to make Illinois the top state in the nation for child care accessibility, Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled a plan to consolidate all the state’s early childhood programs and funding into one new state agency. Currently, early childhood services are spread across three agencies.

The first cohort of students in Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program are set to graduate next month, and when they do they’ll be joined by one of the most renowned writers and journalists in the country.

This Sunday marks 60 years to the day nearly 250,000 Chicago Public Schools students skipped school to boycott CPS. Students and their parents flooded the streets of Chicago in what’s known as Freedom Day, a massive protest of the segregation in CPS and the superintendent at the time, Benjamin Willis.

CPS officials said the High School Admissions Test will be held for district students on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 25 for those taking the exam in English. Students testing in Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Urdu or Simplified Chinese will take the HSAT at school on Nov. 1.

The supply of education professionals continues to improve in Illinois despite strains brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, but persistent issues remain in certain regions of the state and within some teaching fields.

The average student loan debt for Illinoisans is nearly $38,000. Almost 55% of the more than 1 million borrowers in Illinois are under the age of 35, according to the Education Data Initiative.

Students at private schools across Illinois are at risk of losing their scholarships if state lawmakers don’t extend the Invest in Kids Act, which is slated to end Dec. 31.

The Daily Northwestern’s explosive interview this summer with a former football player about alleged hazing was key to the firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who is suing for wrongful termination.