Last week, Chicago Public Schools CEO Dr. Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced that Simeon Career Academy's electricity program will continue to provide high-quality training and offer excellent job prospects to students pursuing career and technical education. Senator Trotter, Representative Flowers, Representative Ford and I had all advocated for this outcome ever since learning in July that the program would be terminated. We submitted the following guest commentary to local media.

"Now is not the time to rest"

Area lawmakers push for expanded career and technical education programs

Brandon Davenport scored in the top 3.5 percent on the apprenticeship test he took this spring. Takaia Butler recently graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a B.A. in applied sciences. Timothy King was named valedictorian of his high school class, went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University and has been accepted to graduate school. Malcolm Zeno and Aaron Moore have just successfully completed their first year of apprenticeship school and are well on their way to good careers as union electricians.

They are all alumni of the electricity program at Simeon Career Academy, and theirs are just a few of its names and faces of hope. These young people, who hail from neighborhoods with some of the highest unemployment rates in the city and state, were trained, mentored and equipped for success in the only remaining electrical shop in the Chicago Public Schools. Last month, a decision was made to terminate this proven school-to-career pipeline and, with it, the hopes and dreams of the dozens of youths enrolled each year in Latisa Kindred's classes.

As legislators proudly representing the communities Simeon serves, we were moved to raise our voices in opposition to the steady erosion of opportunities for our youth, and we were honored to stand alongside the students, families, advocates and community partners who refused to yield.

We thank Mayor Emanuel and CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett for listening to our concerns and responding appropriately, reinstating this vital program in time for the start of the new school year. And it is with tremendous gratitude and excitement for the future that we recognize Local #134 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has committed to offering jobs to students who complete the three-year program. Local #134, which has long partnered with Simeon and vocational education, will also begin an outreach campaign to make middle school students aware of career opportunities in electricity.

Now is not the time to rest. College is more expensive than ever, and America's total student loan debt has supplanted its credit card debt as the heaviest millstone holding back the next generation from financial freedom. Many students in our public schools are not college-bound but deserve the chance to take pride in a trade, provide for themselves and their families, contribute to economic growth and give back to their communities. It is essential that CPS not only maintain its existing career and technical education programs but expand on them, forging new partnerships and reaching out to students in more effective ways.

We stand ready to continue working with CPS and, most importantly, the extraordinary citizens who cared enough about our youth and neighborhoods to get organized and achieve this victory for Simeon's students.

State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th)

State Senator Donne E. Trotter (D-Chicago 17th)

State Representative Mary E. Flowers (D-Chicago 31st)

State Representative La Shawn K. Ford (D-Chicago 8th)

Group to study racial disparities, language barriers, urban/rural divide and more

SPRINGFIELD — State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) is optimistic that a new task force convened to consider racial and cultural disparities in care for older adults will improve options for an aging population that is increasingly diverse. She also anticipates that the group will keep the spotlight on long-term care after well-publicized cases of abuse and neglect inspired a major overhaul of state nursing home regulations in 2010.

“One of the primary motivations for the nursing home reforms I helped pass was a study showing a wide gap in quality of care between nursing homes whose residents were mostly white and those whose population was disproportionately made up of racial and ethnic minorities,” said Collins, who sponsored legislation creating the new working group. “We need to investigate whether the situation has improved, whether there are similar disparities in other kinds of support services for seniors and what we can do now to safeguard the dignity of all older Illinoisans, regardless of race, language, neighborhood or income.”

The Long-Term Services and Supports Disparities Task Force, whose authorizing legislation was signed into law last Friday, will bring together consumers, advocates and representatives of nursing homes and service providers to compile findings and recommended state actions to reduce unequal care. The task force has been directed to look at residential nursing homes but also assisted living facilities, adult day cares, home health services and other kinds of supports for seniors. The group’s first annual report is due July 1, 2015.

“We owe our elders the respect that comes with skilled nursing care, culturally competent assistance and the assurance that whether they are black, white or brown, living in the urban core or a rural area, they will receive high-quality, compassionate care,” Collins said. “This task force is not designed to be a temporary bandage, issuing one report and then dissolving; it will continue to meet and to exert pressure on behalf of individuals whose voices are too rarely heard.”