Now that the “Chicago school miracle” bandwagon has moved on…Some pedestrian facts from the education committee of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, from the July report “Left Behind: Student Achievement in Chicago’s Public Schools”: “Today, in Chicago’s public high schools, only 36% of 11th graders meet or exceed state reading standards. Only 26% of 11th graders meet or exceed state math standards, and only 22% meet or exceed state standards in science. And this is after nearly 40% of the students have dropped out of school….Moreover, recent trends are not promising.” Illinois Standards Achievement Test data for “both the elementary level (four-year trends) and high school level (two-year trends)” suggest that whatever progress has been made early on disappears by the 11th grade.
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Are you ready for all-night zoning? Recent Illinois appellate and supreme court decisions could make local zoning hearings even more adversarial and courtlike than they already are, reports John Lawlor in the Illinois Bar Journal (July). One ruling “indicates that abutting property owners in both large and small municipalities have the right to cross-examine the land-use applicant’s witnesses. This will undoubtedly make many evening zoning proceedings more acrimonious and time-consuming than before. Many suburban zoning dockets already go past midnight.”
Buddhism may free you from the cycle of birth and rebirth, but evidently it won’t free you from the cult of relics. An August 1 press release from the “Relic Tour manager” announced the August 15-17 display of more than 1,000 Buddhist relics at north-side and south-side Buddhist temples. “Many of the relics are tiny, pearl-like objects, called ringsels, that are found in the cremated remains of highly realized beings.”
