Category Archives: Education

Illinois Correctional System: What Is It Really?

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Kevin Stirnichuk

The Public i is partnering with the Education Justice Project (EJP) to share writing completed by incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center. The EJP is a comprehensive college-in-prison program based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Through its educational … Continue reading →

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Graduate Employees Go Wild—For Unionization

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Pat Simpson

Workers are on the move across America. Strikes rose by an astounding 50 percent between 2021 and 2022, and the pace of organization was equally impressive, with new fields of organizing opening in the service sector, the art world, and … Continue reading →

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Frustrations of Peer-to-Peer Education in Prisons

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Mathew Laird

The Public i is partnering with the Education Justice Project (EJP) to share writing by incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center. The EJP is a comprehensive college-in-prison program based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Through its educational programming … Continue reading →

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Kathryn J. Oberdeck (January 18, 1958–June 8, 2022)

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Jim Barrett

Kathy was a passionate fighter against all forms of inequality. She combined an unwavering commitment to the highest intellectual standards with a selfless dedication to community and family. She was a prolific historian of poor and working-class people, particularly their … Continue reading →

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The Anti-Democratic Movement Against Public Schools

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Pat Simpson

“The path to saving the nation is very simple—it’s going to go through the school boards.” – Steve Bannon The workingmen’s parties of the nineteenth century pushed hard, very hard for public schools and were key to their creation. Yes, … Continue reading →

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Book Banning, Gag Orders, and the Organized Right Wing

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Al Kagan

Book bannings are very much in the news these days. They are happening mostly in more rural school districts and in the South, but not only in these places. The American Library Association (ALA) issued a statement in November of … Continue reading →

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Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners’ Mission to Bring Books (and Bibliophilia) Behind Bars

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Katherine Langdon

When it comes to helping people make a fresh start after incarceration and avoid returning to prison, few approaches are as effective and vital as education. Many people who wind up in the prison system do not have enough literacy … Continue reading →

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Janice Mitchell Remembered and Honored

Posted on 03/31/2022 by Belden Fields

At a time when young African American kids most need guidance, Urbana has lost a most remarkable woman whose life represented a commitment to that guidance. That woman is Janice Mitchell, who passed away in November of last year at … Continue reading →

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SB 148 and the Assault On Teaching Black History

Posted on 03/31/2022 by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua

Florida’s SB 148 represents the surging wave of white supremacist fascism sweeping across the country. Entitled “An Act Relating to Individual Freedom,” it symbolizes the deceptive, authoritarian, and racist motivations that characterize the white nationalist Republican Party. By making the … Continue reading →

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Local Community Protests Former Champaign Police Chief’s Teaching Appointment at Parkland College

Posted on 03/31/2022 by Public i

Former Champaign Police Chief Robert T. Finney was hired in August, 2020 to teach Community Policing as well as Introduction to Criminal Justice at Parkland College. “Unbelievable” is what one African American community member thought on hearing the news; “Shocking,” … Continue reading →

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What Educational Values and Beliefs Underpin a Decision to have Armed School Resource Officers?

Posted on 10/27/2020 by Ameena Payne

This article was previously published in Smile Politely,  On December 17, 2019, the Urbana Board of Education (BOE) signed an intergovernmental agreement to approve funding of two full-time armed police officers (called School Resource Officers, or SROs)—one at the middle … Continue reading →

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The Migrants of India Before and During the Covid-19 Crisis

Posted on 07/17/2020 by Anica Bhargava and Ananya Tiwari

The global COVID-19 pandemic claims to spare no race, religion, or social class. Yet over and over we see marginalized and vulnerable communities struggling to get the care and shelter they need during this crisis. India, like numerous other countries, … Continue reading →

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Digital Inequities are Social Inequities

Posted on 07/17/2020 by Brian Bell and Sharon Irish

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, libraries, and other institutions that aim to serve the public, the disparities among “the public” were highlighted in ways that have long been present, but are frequently ignored. One important gap was access to … Continue reading →

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Is the Addition of a Larger Police Presence to Urbana Schools a Human Rights Violation?

Posted on 06/05/2020 by Cara Munro

On February 4, 2019, I was in class at Urbana High School when a student came in and said there were students fighting in the hall and a teacher had been knocked out. My teacher quickly locked the door and … Continue reading →

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How to Squander a Research Library

Posted on 06/05/2020 by Al Kagan

The University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign is the largest publicly supported research library in the country; and as far as all university libraries go, only Harvard is bigger. The library holdings are regularly used as an incentive to recruit … Continue reading →

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Fighting for the Soul of Public Education

Posted on 03/18/2020 by Stephanie Fortado

The administration of the University of California, Santa Cruz announced on Friday, February 28 that it would fire fifty-four graduate instructors who are on strike at the University. The announcement comes as the latest move in a nation-wide wave of … Continue reading →

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University of Illinois “Old” Alums Return for a Conference on the 1960s Protest Movement

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Robert Justin Goldstein

About 50 literally “old” University of Illinois alums returned to campus from around the country (and in one case, from Switzerland) to attend an October 4-5 conference about the 1960s UI student protest movements for free speech and against the … Continue reading →

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Being the Unreasonable: Educating Highly Marginalized Girls to Change the World 

Posted on 11/02/2019 by SwaTaleem Foundation

Seema is a 12-year-old Dalit girl from Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. In the social hierarchy, Dalits in India belong to the lowest strata, often devoid of education and job opportunities, and have compromised rights. On one … Continue reading →

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