College MAP grants for Illinois inmates are a 'sound investment in public safety'

The Illinois Senate is considering legislation to restore the Monetary Award Program funding, or MAP grants, for incarcerated people. These grants help lower-income people attend college.

It is not just a matter of fairness. It's a sound investment in public safety, economic stability and community well-being. Illinois has barred those incarcerated from accessing MAP funding since 1987, a decision that limits their access to education and potential for rehabilitation.

Now is the time for Illinois lawmakers to correct this, aligning with positive legislative trends across the country. States such as Michigan have enacted laws to provide financial aid to incarcerated individuals following the 2020 bipartisan decision to restore Pell Grants. Illinois should join these states in recognizing that education is a powerful tool for reducing recidivism.

Research from the Yale Policy Lab shows prison education programs have a profound effect on reducing repeat offenses. By helping incarcerated individuals obtain degrees, Illinois will be creating a path to safer communities and fewer repeat offenders.

The Quad City Business Journal recently reported on the success of David Staples, the first graduate of the Augustana Prison Education Program at the East Moline Correctional Center in Rock Island. The Emmy-nominated “Prison Behind Bars” documentary also explores numerous stories that challenge conventional views on incarceration and the transformative role of education.

According to the Rand Corp., every dollar invested in prison education saves $4 to $5 in incarceration costs, addressing the hefty price Illinois pays for recidivism incidents, which average $152,000 each.

Restoring MAP funding would also address longstanding racial and economic inequities, disproportionately impacting Black, Brown and low-income communities. The Illinois Task Force for Higher Education in Prison is advocating for the restoration of MAP funding as a key component in expanding educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals.

There is significant public support for this change. Polling data shows a strong consensus in favor of restoring educational funding for incarcerated individuals. This is a bipartisan issue with broad backing, not just from those who champion social justice but also from those who recognize the economic and public safety benefits.

Restoring MAP funding would create safer communities, reduce prison costs and empower individuals to reintegrate into society with the skills and knowledge to succeed. I’m working closely with lawmakers in Springfield to ensure more people like Staples can take advantage of programs that would result in reduced recidivism, better employment prospects, cost savings and greater equity. Everyone stands to gain.

State Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago

Wall Street Journal takes Trump to task

As I read Mona Charen’s screed attacking The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page for having "succumbed to Trumpian populism" last week, I felt obliged to ask how often Ms. Charen actually reads the Journal’s editorial page.

On the very day Ms. Charen’s piece was published in the Sun-Times, the Journal’s lead editorial blasted President-elect Donald Trump for his ham-handed interference in the budget process, comparing him to hapless New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. This well-deserved attack on Mr. Trump is not at all out of the ordinary for The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal’s editorial page has regularly and consistently lambasted Mr. Trump for his foreign policy; his industrial policy of which his bluff and bluster about tariffs is the most salient feature; his stated desire to interfere with the Fed; his selection of inexperienced and otherwise questionable individuals for cabinet positions; his intensifying courting of labor bosses; his general flightiness and inconsistency; and a whole host of other policies and characteristics that make the Journal, and, indeed, any thinking conservative, apprehensive about Mr. Trump.

Trump loyalists are, understandably, not at all pleased with the Journal’s editorial page, attacking it as the herald of the neocons, the deep staters and RINOs (Republican in name only) who are intent on sabotaging Mr. Trump’s agenda.

Those of us who understand what it means to be a conservative, however, figure that if both Mr. Trump’s most ardent sycophants and the likes of Ms. Charen are attacking the Journal’s editorial page, it must be doing something right.

Mark M. Quinn, Naperville

Charrettes promote equity, respect

The Dec. 26, letter to the editor, A charrette or a charade?, misses the mark about a new community public forum procedure implemented by Alds. Angela Clay (46th) and Matt Martin (47th) during a recent community meeting to garner feedback on a land use plan for the Broadway corridor.

The public forum protocol was clearly developed to ensure everyone had input in community planning and development, including racially and economically minority residents who are often openly and publicly discriminated against in largely white communities.

On the Far Northwest Side, another largely white community, bigoted and intolerant comments about housing choice voucher holders, formerly known as "Section 8," and others who pay rent using various housing subsidies commonly occur during community meetings called to discuss planned developments — without condemnation or consequences, leaving residents who rely on housing subsidies at risk for stigma, discrimination and traumatization.

Open public forums called to discuss community planning and development must include procedures to ensure residents who require affordable and subsidized housing are not publicly discriminated against during community meetings. And that their input is just as welcomed and valued as anyone else's.

If that means smaller, more controllable, round table discussions and written comments on sticky notes, well, so be it. The open public discrimination of legally protected classes of people, during public forums in Chicago, must end. I hope all City Council members learn to conduct public forums using protocols that promote equity and respectfulness.

Monica Dillon, Norwood Park

Flag’s meaning has been distorted

As the new year beckons, I find myself contemplating one of the many controversies that shaped the political discourse of 2024: the troubling debate surrounding the historic "Appeal to Heaven" flag that erupted over the summer when it was revealed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had flown it at his vacation home.

As someone who has long displayed this flag proudly in my own home, I am deeply unsettled by how distorted its meaning has become, and by the apparent desire of some groups to label the flag as an irredeemable symbol of extremism.

The "Appeal to Heaven" flag, with its pine tree and bold inscription, has its origins in the Revolutionary War, but the phrase itself comes from English philosopher and Enlightenment thinker John Locke, whose "Second Treatise on Government" argued that all people have the moral right, when civil power has become unjust or otherwise corrupt, to appeal to a higher authority.

Locke wrote, "Should either the executive or the legislative, when they have got the power in their hands, design, or go about to enslave or destroy them, the people have no other remedy in this, as in all other cases where they have no judge on earth, but to appeal to Heaven."

This powerful idea so boldly stated resonated deeply with the devout colonists. It embodied their plea for divine justice in their struggle against British tyranny, as well as their burning desire for a new kind of government.

Unfortunately, extremists have in recent years attempted to co-opt the flag, aligning it with Christian nationalism and even the Jan. 6 insurrection. This is a hideous distortion, one that reduces the flag to a partisan emblem devoid of its original profound meaning as a call for justice and accountability.

It is my prayer this holiday season that Americans of all backgrounds and persuasions reclaim this symbol of resistance to tyranny. Let it remind us of the founders’ belief that no leader is above the people nor any government beyond accountability.

Symbols matter, and this one belongs to all of us. And it is one worth fighting for.

John C. Engle, Logan Square

U.S. must end bloodshed in Gaza

How utterly futile to bear witness to 450 days (and counting ) of Israel's senseless bombardment of Gaza's unarmed population. With Gaza having been reduced to unsustainable conditions, a result of Israel's intense and reckless bombardments, it seems unfathomable to citizens of conscience that western nations, including the United States, refuse to intervene to finally stop the genocide of a people.

Case in point: The few trucks that attempt to deliver food to a starving population are often attacked. Children, including amputees who lie in demolished hospitals, are deprived of being sent for critical treatment to the U.S., the U.K. and EU member states. Ninety six percent of children in Gaza fear imminent death.

The list of atrocities continue unabated while too many in our population seem entirely deaf to Gaza's ordeal. Instead, we need to muster our collective humanity to speak out to the Biden as well as the incoming Trump administration, clamoring for immediate cessation of money, bombs and weapons to Israel while its genocide rages on.

The U.S. must also intervene directly to assist the oppressed and beleaguered population with food, water, medicine, electricity and other necessities. It took us a while to intervene in World War II. We must intervene now.

Sid Sussman, Hallandale Beach, Florida

Not channeling JFK

On Jan. 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, made the following statement at his inaugural address to the nation"..."Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,"

I see Donald Trump's rhetoric to read ..."Ask not what your country can do for you — let me show you what I can do your country," His recent brazen attempt to raise the national debit ceiling is an example of this rhetoric (as well as his cabinet appointments.) His attempt, to raise the national debit limit, would have left the government as an open ATM, possibly using citizens' money for the benefit of those already with millions of dollars already in their personal account.

Voters should now begin to realize that what Trump was grifting was not in the best interest of the American people, but for him his million dollar supporters.

John Prusko, Carol Stream

Mixed signals

Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to "signal his support for education and teachers" by maintaining his teacher status. The only signal I’m reading is that he wants to increase his pension substantially. Couldn’t he just issue a news release stating, "I support education and teachers?" Doesn’t every voter in Chicago know this already? It might be less humiliating to taxpayers if they didn’t have to eat such rancid baloney and listen to a so-called progressive sneak by with the old Chicago motto, "Where's mine?"

Ted Hild, Springfield

Seeking counsel

Perhaps if Mr. Trump is interested in reclaiming Greenland and the Panama Canal, he should contact his buddy Vladimir Putin to get a few pointers on how to execute an invasion (excuse me, "special military operation"). I'm sure he would get little resistance from the Greenland and Panama Canal armies. On second thought, Putin's advice might not be the best.

Larry Wierzbicki, Bolingbrook