The Issue:
Educational Achievement

Education is the single most important factor affecting people's future incomes, employment prospects and social opportunities. Yet too many of our region's youth are not getting what they need to reach their full academic potentials.

Studies show that children who attend preschool programs gain better language skills and mathematical ability, display fewer behavior problems in kindergarten and are more successful overall throughout their lives. Unfortunately, many families in our region simply can not afford this essential early support. Although the government offers subsidies, many working families earn more than the poverty-level rates that would qualify them for that assistance.

Approximately 1/3 of Illinois first graders are not ready to learn when they begin school.

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For a family of three in Illinois, the maximum annual income eligibility for child care assistance in 2004 was $27,936. Thousands of families earn more than that, but not nearly enough to pay for preschool themselves. Without access to subsidized care, the typical Illinois family would need to pay 25% of its income for early education at a licensed daycare center--for just one child.

Staying in school through graduation is also essential to lifelong success. Nearly two-thirds of all the jobs in our metropolitan area require workers to have some post-secondary education. By 2013 more than 80% of the 23 million new jobs will require some post-secondary education--but 46% of Chicago's youth do not even complete high school. Without the education that employers are demanding, these high school dropouts are 72% more likely to be unemployed and three times more likely to be poor in the span of a year than those who graduate.

Your United Way support provides: affordable daycare and early childhood programs to prepare kids for lifelong learning, early intervention programs to help children with special needs tackle their disabilities head-on, as well as tutoring, mentoring and stay-in-school programs to keep youth on track for graduation and prepare them for the future.

A Young Boy