A new state capital plan will help create jobs in Chicago, particularly in the construction and education-related industries. Click here to learn more about Chicago jobs.

A five-year capital program from the State of Illinois will provide the money needed for critical local infrastructure projects. Under the program, Chicago Public Schools will receive $400 million for school construction, the Chicago Transit Authority will receive $900 million and the Chicago Park District will receive $41 million. Money also will be allocated for work on roads and bridges.

“I want to thank (Governor Pat Quinn) and the General Assembly for meeting the challenge of passing a capital program that will create jobs, fix our schools and roads, support mass transit and pump new spending into our economy at the very time that we need it most,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said. “Combined with the federal economic stimulus legislation that has begun to deliver much-needed support to people all across the country, this new state program is a critical step in helping get our economy moving again.”

(more…)

Several Chicago education jobs will soon be lost.

Officials at Chicago Public Schools recently announced that they plan to lay off 500 workers within the next few weeks and another 500 workers during the next year. The cuts aren’t expected to affect classrooms, but instead will take place among the 5,300 employees in the school’s management and administrative positions.

According to an article by the Chicago Tribune, the job cuts will help fill a budget deficit estimated to be between $475 million and $600 million. The layoffs could help save up to $100 million.

(more…)

If you’ve always wanted to work in education, now may be the time to look into a Chicago teaching job.

Many people often switch careers to take on jobs as teachers, but this has become more true with the current economic recession bearing on many other industries. According to an article by The Associated Press, people who switch careers make up about one-third of new teachers.

“One of the only benefits of living in such tough economic times now is that you have folks getting laid off and looking for work,” Arne Duncan, former Chicago Public Schools CEO, who is now President Obama’s education secretary, said in the article.

(more…)

While the Chicago school system is looking to restructure in hopes to save money, one group feels it’s not worth the cost to students or those with Chicago education jobs.

Two recent studies state that the Chicago Public Schools plan to close and reorganize schools has not led to improvements and has only focused on poor neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. The report was completed by the Grassroots Education Movement, a coalition of community, parent and teacher groups.

According to an article by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Schools plans to close and reorganize 22 schools under the district’s Renaissance 2010 initiative. The initiative, which began in 2004, calls for the creation of 100 new schools in Chicago to be put under the control of private groups. Of the schools to be closed, 16 have underenrollment. Staff members at six of those schools will have to reapply for education jobs.

(more…)

Anyone looking for a Chicago education job is bound to have some tough competition.

While the State of Illinois certifies many teachers each year, only a fraction of those actually make it into teaching positions. For instance, during the 2007-2008 school year, only 6 percent of the overall teaching force was made up of first-time teachers. However, Chicago Public Schools have been inundated with applications recently. A recent career fair brought out 1,100 Chicago job seekers, and applications for teaching positions have doubled in the past five years to 23,568 during the 2008-2009 school year.

According to an article by the the Illinois State Board of Education, the State of Illinois as a whole is producing thousands more new teachers than public school districts are hiring. There is an oversupply of teachers in all subjects except bilingual education, and the highest concentration of teachers is in social science. In the year ending June 30, 2007, 5,033 teachers were certified to teach social science in Illinois, but only 373 were hired by public school districts for the following school year.

(more…)