Like many Americans, I’ve been sitting with fear and a heavy heart as our federal government takes steps backward in protecting people with disabilities by angling to undo decades of work with a stroke of a pen and little regard for those it will impact.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department released a memo that argued states don’t have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support. These services are vital and allow people to live and ensure their right to be a part of their communities.
Unfortunately, as states may possibly choose this option, especially those who see it as a benefit to cutting costs, people with disabilities will slowly start to become more invisible and be forced to seek assistance through institutions. The world has a dark history of institutionalizing people with disabilities. We can’t afford to go backward.
As an autistic educator who works with students with disabilities, these national conversations aren’t abstract debates. They’re personal and have real consequences that distort public understanding and affect how our students with disabilities, their families and staff see themselves.
We need leaders, now more than ever, who are ready to counteract the rising ableism and politicized conversations and debates on disability. The cost of inaction or complicity is too high and will result in further inequities and isolation for people with disabilities. We all deserve a space in this world.
Samantha Ellison, Uptown
Value of vocational schools
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote address at the commencement ceremony for Rockford Career College, a 164-year-old vocational school and one of many such institutions in Illinois. As I told the students, their families and guests, vocational schools are increasingly being recognized as a valuable educational alternative to traditional four-year universities, and for good reason.
The unemployment rate for 20-something graduates of vocational schools and community colleges was only 2.1%, compared with 15.3% for four-year college alumni, according to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Locally, almost one-third of all jobs in Illinois by 2031 will require a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree, according to the Association for Career and Technical Education. To meet this demand, Illinois in the 2022-23 school year had 125,022 postsecondary students participating in career and technical education.
What I appreciate about vocational schools is not just their convenient locations for students, but their ability to meet each student’s needs based on where they are in life. Many of these students come from low-income or blue-collar backgrounds and may have believed that college or career vocational training was unattainable. However, now they are finding that vocational colleges are more affordable, offer degrees that require less time — generally two years, sometimes only 10 months — and prepare students for fields where there is real job demand.
Another item that stands out about our Illinois vocational schools is how they are breaking down traditional gender and age barriers in skilled vocational fields. What I found most impressive about meeting these students was that there were no traditional career silos holding them back.
There were many women earning degrees in fields that have traditionally been male dominated, such as plumbing, welding, electrical work and manufacturing. Likewise, men were pursuing careers in healthcare and nursing. I have long advocated hands-on technical training to prepare the next generation of skilled tradespeople for successful careers and to keep our local economy strong. It is encouraging to see.
Illinois educational leaders evolving and embracing what vocational schools have long advocated. Skilled vocational trades produce good-paying jobs and give students a bright future.
State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford
Easing health care access for undocumented immigrants
Recent local news coverage of Pope Leo XIV’s remarks on immigration and human dignity raises important questions about how these values are or are not reflected in Chicagoans’ ability to access healthcare.
As an intensive care unit nurse in the heart of the city, I repeatedly witness how fear of immigration enforcement officers, language barriers and lack of trust in institutions delay health care access for immigrant families. When patients delay seeking care due to these barriers, conditions that are manageable in early stages often progress to critical illness requiring intensive care. The success of ICU care is highly dependent on how quickly treatment is initiated. I often think about how many critically ill patients might have experienced better outcomes had they been able to receive care before their conditions became emergencies.
Access to healthcare should not be contingent upon immigration status. Healthcare institutions have an obligation to provide care to all patients in need.
Our city’s leaders must strengthen policies promoting timely and equitable access to healthcare for all.
More specifically, I would encourage stronger policies that allow patients to seek medical care without fear of jeopardizing their access to essential services, along with increased public health outreach to immigrant communities. As reinforced by the pope’s repeated emphasis on human dignity, solidarity and concern for vulnerable populations, protecting healthcare access for all Chicago residents is both an ethical responsibility and a public health necessity.
Grace Mulvey, Streeterville
Renew United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
The Trump administration will soon make a pivotal decision — and over 120,000 Illinois jobs hang in the balance.
The United States, Mexico and Canada have begun preparations for the 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The trade deal was a triumph of the first Trump administration — and the president would be wise to renew it.
The agreement modernized outdated rules, strengthened North American manufacturing and ensured that goods produced in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico can move across borders duty-free as long as they meet the agreement’s requirements.
Those requirements make sure the only products that get duty-free access are the ones genuinely made in North America. And because the agreement rewards companies for building their products with North American materials, it strengthens demand for what Illinois produces — from corn and soy to machinery and industrial components.
When corn grown in Brazil or Argentina can’t be routed through Mexico to get tariff-free access to the U.S., it keeps the playing field fair for North American producers. And because Mexico also relies on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement-eligible corn for its own supply chains, Illinois growers maintain a built-in competitive edge on both sides of the border.
Forty-one percent of all Illinois goods exports go to Canada and Mexico, totaling $34 billion in 2023.
When these supply chains operate without tariff shocks or regulatory friction, Illinois producers stay competitive — and consumers see fewer price spikes on finished goods.
Strong, predictable North American trade helps the U.S. compete with China by keeping production and sourcing anchored in our own region. When companies can rely on a unified North American market, they are less likely to shift production overseas.
Renewing the agreement would lock in the predictability Illinois relies on and keep North American trade running smoothly for years to come.
Renewing the agreement would give Illinois farmers, manufacturers and small businesses the confidence to plan and invest, and it would help keep everyday life more affordable for families across the Land of Lincoln.
Mike Kirkton, CEO, Top View Farms Inc., former Livingston County Board member and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel
Native Americans afforded more rights than Palestinians
Neil Steinberg’s comparison to the United States’ taking land from the Native American population being similar to Israel’s being “built upon land that once belonged to someone else” ignores that fact that in the U.S., Native Americans are citizens with rights, something that Israel continues to reject for Palestinians even after nearly 80 years — genocide included.
Jim Murray, Loop
Accepting Israel’s genocide
Does Neil Steinberg understand that by comparing Israel’s “blowing Gaza to smithereens” to the genocide of Native Americans, he’s essentially conceding that Israel is, in fact, committing a genocide? Did he just forget that he’s supposed to pretend it’s not a genocide? Or does he think the American genocide was not so bad? Quite revealing either way.
Steven Wyman, Ravenswood
Weak argument
Has Neil Steinberg considered that when he demonstrably shows he knows nothing about the anti-Zionist or Land Back movements, he looks foolish trying to argue against them?
Kathryn Flucht, Boystown
Tinted trouble
Lately I’ve been noticing more vehicles on the streets and roads with dark black tinted windows and windshields. Under Illinois law, a vehicle with a tinted windshield must have a Secretary of State window tint license plate, accompanied by a physician’s letter.
The percentage of light allowed through is different for sedan cars and SUV cars or vans. Many vehicles are equipped with limo tint — measuring at a 5% visible light transmission — which is illegal in Illinois. This poses a threat to the public and first responders. Police officers making a traffic stop at 2:30 a.m. may not be able to see if a weapon is pointed at them.
State and municipal leaders should ensure that police have tint meters, so they can enforce the law. A statewide campaign can also warn these motorists that if they continue to ignore the law, they will be held accountable. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Gov. JB Pritzker and other elected officials, make sure to take the necessary steps to create a less precarious environment for first responders who would like to go home to their families every day just like you do.
Christopher Gomez, West Lawn
Suburbanites’ loyalty to Chicago often uneven
Suburbanites love to claim the positives of Chicago while separating themselves from the negatives.
They dump on Chicago Public Schools, call the city dangerous and moan about the taxes. They will brag about the food but refuse to try restaurants that aren’t in “trendy” neighborhoods. They refuse to accept regional problems as regional and instead blame the city.
They do not build homeless shelters or push for more affordable housing. But they do fight hard to keep public housing and transit from expanding into their own hamlets.
They’ll happily fund circus classes or marine biology classes while CPS students can’t even get air conditioning. They’ll visit museums in lakefront parks but won’t lead park revitalization efforts in Englewood.
They will pour money into city elections to back their preferred (suburban) candidate but refuse a head tax as “bad for business.”
Being a Chicagoan is so much more than being from the general region or having family from there. Being from Chicago is not an ethnicity. It is a choice suburbanites opt out of. You have to take it with the good and the bad and work to make the city a better place for all. Being a Chicagoan is putting your money where your mouth is, not taking your taxes and running off to segregate yourselves in tiny towns.
Until suburbanites put skin in the game, they are NOT Chicagoans.
Conor McNamee, Beverly
Obama center fits with Nuclear Energy sculpture
Fans of the Obama Presidential Center are saying it blends in well with the nearby Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago. I disagree. It reminds me more of the university’s bronze sculpture Nuclear Energy by Henry Moore that sits at the site of the world’s first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1. The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created at the university on Dec. 2, 1942. I passed Nuclear Energy most days my last two years as a U. of C. undergrad.
Walt Zlotow, U. of C. Class of ’67, Glen Ellyn