Amy Qin

Feb 26, 2025 | wbez.org | Amy Qin

🎧 Click “Listen” to hear Letonia Robinson’s story She’s a single mom who has tried for two years to find an apartment in Chicago she can afford. If you’ve tried to find an affordable place to rent in Chicago in the last several years, chances are you had a hard time. Maybe you had to settle for a place farther from work or school; perhaps you had to live with family or friends temporarily. For many, the alternative is just paying much more for rent than you can afford.

Feb 26, 2025 | wbez.org | Amy Qin |Andjela Padejski

On a bone-chilling day in early January, Letonia Robinson and her kids are inside, huddled around the kitchen table. They’re making cookies — specifically, princess- and snowman-shaped ones, explain Robinson’s daughters Juliana, 5, and Journey, 7. Meanwhile, her son Jaycee Riley, 8, is on dough-rolling duty, but he’s trying to sneak a few bites of the sweet, gooey concoction. “Don’t eat too much. It’ll make you sick,” Robinson reminds him.

Nov 22, 2024 | wbez.org | Sarah Karp |Lisa Philip |Nader Issa |Amy Qin

A new report calls for making state standardized tests more useful for teachers and students and for the state to help school districts pay to repair and renovate school buildings, among other sweeping recommendations. Officials from several state education associations, including the Illinois Association of School Boards and the Illinois Association of Principals, came together to develop Vision 2030.

Nov 21, 2024 | wbez.org | Lisa Philip |Nader Issa |Sarah Karp |Amy Qin

Student activists and faculty members at the University of Chicago say college leaders have gone back on a commitment they made months ago to establish a special initiative to host scholars impacted by violence in Gaza. University officials say they have made efforts to accommodate scholars from the region through an existing program, and one scholar from the West Bank is on campus now.

Nov 21, 2024 | wbez.org | Sarah Karp |Nader Issa |Violet Miller |Amy Qin

The Chicago Teachers Union is ramping up pressure to get a contract deal, insisting it needs to be done before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, and expressing doubt that the current school district leadership can make it happen. “We have a real, clear and present danger staring at us,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said about Trump’s administration.