Illinois
State Government
Governor
J.B. Pritzker (D)
State Senate
40
Democrats,
19
Republicans
State House
78
Democrats,
40
Republicans
Economic well-being - Illinois
Extreme poverty rate
0.1
Food insecurity
0.1
Minimum wage
15.0
Percent of working families under 200% of the poverty line
0.3
Poverty rate
11.6%
Unemployment rate
4.4
Number of Black or African American children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment
Number of Hispanic or Latino children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment
Percent of individuals who are uninsured
6.9
Poverty by demographic - Illinois
Child poverty rate
0.1
Number of Asian and Pacific Islander children below 200% poverty
28000
Number of Black or African American children below 200% poverty
204000
Number of Hispanic or Latino children below 200% poverty
312000
Senior poverty rate
10.6 %
Women in poverty
6,308,481
Chicago Tribune, July 31, 2012: Low test scores force D203 to offer alternative to Mill Street students
"Under No Child Left Behind, 85 percent of students needed to meet standards in 2011 while 92.5 percent were required in 2012. At Mill, low-income students missed the mark in reading both years. Naperville Unit District 203 has chosen Meadow Glens and River Woods as alternate schools for Mill students because they are high-achieving and have the capacity to accommodate them, according to Kitty Ryan, assistant superintendent for elementary education. Parents have until Aug. 8 to request a transfer. By law, priority will be given to low-income, low-achieving students."
Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2012: Joliet gears up for major downtown projects
"City Council members recently approved zoning changes that will allow a developer to turn St. Mary's Carmelite Church into low-income housing for senior citizens. Work on the $10.5 million project is expected to start sometime next year."
Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2012: Transportation executives help put students on job track
"Pritzker said he also is interested in helping grow the Denver-based Nurse-Family Partnership, in which a nurse periodically visits low-income, first-time moms at their homes. He also cited the Fussy Baby Network, run by Chicago's Erikson Institute, which operates a hotline for parents whose infants are excessively crying."
Chicago Sun-Times, June 7, 2012: (Op-Ed) Education, college and work: That's what's cool
"Because drug dealing doesn't last. Thug life has no retirement plan. And because the best antidote to poverty is education. I plan to say as much at an awards celebration this Thursday evening to a group of Chicago public elementary school students in a program called 'It's So Cool To Be Smart' - which seeks to promote college, and encourages and rewards student achievement while also strengthening 'a culture of student success within schools.'"
Chicago Tribune, June 6, 2012: Special help starts as early as grade school but only for select students
"As a whole, the 20 districts with the highest percentages of students with 504s had enrollments that were 76 percent white; all had far less poverty than the state average of 45 percent of enrollment. The 20 districts with the lowest percentages of 504s were 19 percent white, and the vast majority had far higher poverty than the state average."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 30, 2012: Illinois considers charging kids for riding school buses
"He and others note that federal law restricts schools from charging fees to low-income families, which is why many children are on free or reduced-price lunch programs. 'For a district like Granite City, we have a lot of free-and-reduced families. You can't pass that along,' said Briggs. 'I don't believe you could charge enough to break even' by charging just the higher-income students for bus service."