WBEZ14%
Special education needs and costs skyrocket 53%
By Esther Bergdahl78%
7/20/2026, 8:45:00 PM
Keywords: Special Education, Iep, 504 Plan, Autism, Cps, Chicago Public Schools, Nirav Shah, Maine Senate Bid, Illinois Public Health, Bob Grogan, Illinois Republican Party, Donald Trump, Chicago Cabbies, Ride Hailing Drivers, Taxi Medallions, Autonomous Vehicles, Loop Weather Bell, St Vincent, Annie Clark, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia
BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 20.1% saturation with 292 hits. Analysis detected 2,893 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,455 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 52.3% and a BS Rank of 53% (8,958 of 18,914 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 52.60% of the article peer group.
Good afternoon!
It’s Monday, and if you’re already missing the World Cup, may I suggest another contest to grab your attention — the Lumberjack World Championships .
Here’s what else you need to know today.
1.
Separate classrooms, more staff: How CPS is coping with a staggering rise in special ed needs and costs
As of this spring, almost 83,000 Chicago Public Schools students qualified for either an individualized education program, known as an IEP, or a 504 plan, which legally require school districts to provide students with specialized education services or to remove barriers to their learning.
That’s 26% of CPS students, my colleague Sarah Karp reports — up from 20% in 2019.
The number of students with autism has also doubled since 2019, according to CPS data obtained through an open records request.
Many of these students require intensive classroom support and therapy, and a growing number spend the majority of their day in separate classes.
“There’s a lot of research to support that strategic hiring of highly qualified educators makes a difference for students, and so, while it is expensive, there likely will be a positive outcome for students,” said Jaunelle Pratt-Williams, a research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago.
[ WBEZ ]
2.
Former Illinois public health chief Nirav Shah drops Maine Senate bid
The race is pivotal in determining control of Congress’ upper chamber, my Sun-Times colleague Tina Sfondeles reports.
Shah dropped out yesterday after the Maine Democratic Party held weekend caucuses to determine who would be best to replace Graham Platner as the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S.
Sen.
Susan Collins.
Platner ended his campaign amid sexual assault allegations, although he has said his decision was not an admission of guilt.
Before moving to Maine, Shah presided over a series of fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the state of Illinois’ veterans’ home in Quincy that were linked to 14 resident deaths and the sickening of dozens of other staff and residents at the former facility.
His oversight under Republican Gov.
Bruce Rauner’s administration was condemned at the time for worsening the preventable public health crisis and causing a greater loss of life.
The debacle, which was laid bare in a series of investigative reports by WBEZ, led to new state laws and a new veterans home in Quincy, and prompted more than $6 million in wrongful death payouts by the state to victims’ families.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
3.
Illinois Republican Party chair Bob Grogan aims to shake off ‘Stockholm syndrome’ of struggling state GOP
Nearly 12 years removed from their last statewide election victory and long relegated to super-minority status in Springfield, Republicans have tapped former DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan to chair the state party, aiming to revitalize the suburban base that has largely abandoned the GOP under President Donald Trump.
Grogan spent 12 years as an elected watchdog keeping tabs on various arms of the county government.
He told my colleague Mitchell Armentrout he has no misconceptions about his new volunteer post recruiting candidates, fundraising and, most importantly, attempting to unite a fractured party.
“You get blamed for everything and credit for nothing,” Grogan said.
“I’m not in it for the glory.
I like to say professionally, what I do is I fix broken things.
And that’s my audit background, where you find problems and you don’t play ‘gotcha.’
You just say, ‘Here’s a list of solutions.
Let’s try to go out and do it.’”
Trump has complicated matters for the state party in the suburbs, which provided the lifeblood of the Illinois GOP for generations.
Former President Joe Biden won DuPage County by 18 percentage points in 2024.
For his part, Grogan compared Trump to an “elephant in the china shop.”
“We share a lot of the same goals.
We definitely don’t share a style,” the Downers Grove resident said.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
4.
Amid changing industry, Chicago cabbies and ride-hailing drivers are both struggling
On a typical day, Chicago cabbie Bob Singh makes about $80 from six rides.
Based on conversations with the drivers he works with, he estimated the average Chicago taxi driver makes around $20 per hour, if not less.
Competition from ride-hailing apps has sharply reduced the demand for cabs and therefore the value of taxi medallions — the government-issued permit required for taxis.
And then there’s the emerging threat of autonomous vehicles looming over all drivers.
Cabbies say that despite providing the same service, they’re placed on an unlevel playing field with ride-hailing drivers, who are not required to complete training or obtain a chauffeur license.
In Chicago, the price of a taxi medallion peaked in 2012 at nearly $400,000, according to city data.
Now, they go for around $5,000, which has left many Chicago cabbies in significant debt.
Ride-hailing drivers have hit their own speed bumps.
The app-based companies control their fares and the trips available to them, take an ever-changing percentage of their pay and sometimes cut off drivers’ accounts at a moment’s notice.
City and state lawmakers recently took steps to support cabbies and ride-hailing drivers alike, but some worry it may be too little too late.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
5.
Iconic Loop weather bell to shine again after years in the dark
There’s a warm nostalgic spot in Chicago’s brick, concrete and glass heart for those big vintage outdoor signs that were once plentiful in this town, especially the signage that told us the time and temperature.
It’s a shame that signs like these have been vanishing from the city’s urban landscape since the 1990s, writes Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey.
But we still have the old Bell Federal Savings weather sign that’s stood sentinel at the northwest corner of the Rector Building, 79 W.
Monroe St., since the 1950s.
It goes above and beyond providing the time and temperature.
The sign also has a lighted acrylic bell that changes color to alert passersby of coming weather conditions — invaluable back in the days before cellphones and smartwatches gave us this information at a glance.
The Bell Federal sign hasn’t worked for years.
But that’s now changing as the device undergoes a renovation aimed at making it look and function as it did when it was new.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
Here’s what else is happening
Police failed to place troubled cop Carlos Baker under strict supervision in the Chicago Police Department’s Personnel Concerns Program before he fatally shot partner Officer Krystal Rivera last summer.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, became the new prime minister of the UK, its seventh since 2016.
[ NPR ]
The Pentagon withheld dozens of U.S. military injuries and strikes against personnel during the war with Iran.
[ New York Times ]
A festival dedicated to the late singer-songwriter John Prine lands citywide in October, including a concert hosted by actor John C.
Reilly.
[ Block Club Chicago ]
Oh, and one more thing …
Musician Annie Clark, the multi-instrumentalist who performs under the name St.
Vincent, is no stranger to reinvention.
Much like her creative heroes — David Bowie, Prince, David Byrne — Clark’s sound and stage presence have evolved throughout the nearly 20 years since her debut album “Marry Me” was released in 2007.
Now Clark continues to defy genres by appearing with a full orchestra, including a performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this weekend at Ravinia.
“In this weird way, this concert became kind of like — I’m not nearly dead, thank God — but it became sort of a midlife career retrospective,” she told my colleague Courtney Kueppers.
The orchestral project puts Clark in the company of many pop peers who have also recently waded into the world of classical collaborations.
The need for these types of crossover programs seems more urgent, as arts administrators in the classical universe look to attract broader audiences in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[ WBEZ ]
Tell me something good …
Someone at my local dog park — a CPS teacher — remarked over the weekend that she’s only got a few short weeks of summer left.
Now, I live for summer and love it, but I know plenty of people are counting down the days until sweater weather.
That’s got me wondering: What are you determined to do or experience before summer ends?
I’m personally eager to bring my 75-lb coonhound to the Prairie Wolf Off-Leash Dog Area in Lake County — or, barring that, Montrose Dog Beach , because I’ve never seen her (and her big ears!)
in the water.
Feel free to email me , and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.
Analysis
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