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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

State Education Report Card Shows Financial Disparities, College Unpreparedness

Flickr user / alamosbasement "old school" (CC BY 2.0)

Every two years, the advocacy group Advance Illinois takes a hard look at how the state measures up to its task of educating children. Their latest reportoffers little good news.

Ginger Ostro, executive director of Advance Illinois, says low-income children need more resources to succeed in school. And with the ongoing state budget impasse, Ostro is focused on changing the formula for how education dollars are distributed.?

“One of the things we found in the report was how poverty has spread across the state,” she says. “And now 43 percent of school districts are serving students where over 50 percent of them come from low-income families. So that’s a real challenge.”

The one bright spot in the report was increased high school graduation rates, but the majority of those students would still need to take remedial courses if they go to college.

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