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The question of how much funding each of the new Renaissance schools will get from the business-backed New Schools for Chicago seems straightforward and simple. But asking it didn't lead to a simple answer.

In February, New Schools for Chicago teamed up with Mayor Richard M. Daley's office to announce it had awarded $3.7 million to eight schools; so far, the group has not released a school-by-school breakdown of the grants.

When the Education Funding Advisory Board gave lawmakers its recommendation for a $1,441 increase in minimum per-pupil spending, the board made another little-noticed but far-reaching proposal that would, in effect, end the yearly battles over how much to spend on schools.

The advisory board called on the state to make education funding a "continuing appropriation," thus making money for schools immune from budget cuts. Such a change would require the state to set aside money for schools first, before yearly budget negotiations begin.

Teen pregnancy is one factor behind the district's high dropout rate. Pregnant teens often find themselves pushed out the door of their school with few options since the district shut down two of three schools for pregnant girls and cut out the highly praised Cradle to Classroom program, which provided services to teen mothers and helped them stay in school. Sally Polasek, an administrator for the state's Teen Parent Services program, talked to Associate Editor Maureen Kelleher about the difficulties she faces helping teen parents navigate the school system.

Por muchos años, la Junta de Educación de Chicago ha concentrado su dinero federal de Título I en las escuelas que se consideran los más altos en un índice especial de pobreza.

Una escala muy empinada—este año variando desde $200 a $980 por estudiante de bajos ingresos—le dio a las escuelas con tasas de pobreza más altas proporcionalmente más de este dinero federal discrecional, atrayendo elogios de los investigadores estudiando estrategias para obtener fondos en los distritos urbanos.

Supplemental General State Aid (SGSA) is the lifeblood of school reforms in Chicago. Previously known as state Chapter 1, its 32-year history marks the pendulum swing from centralized control of schools to local control and back.

Distributed to schools based on the number of low-income students enrolled, SGSA constitutes nearly two-thirds of the discretionary money available to principals and LSCs to pay for supplemental programs. The following is a brief history of this funding stream:

Through Scaling Up Best Practice, parents at Perez, Pickard and Orozco schools attend workshops tied to classroom work, test-taking or special school projects.

During one workshop in December, parents learned how to make books to prepare them to help their children enter the Young Authors' Competition, which involves writing and creating a homemade book.

Under federal law, school districts must provide fee waivers, free lunches and any other assistance homeless students might need to attend school. Districts must also immediately enroll homeless students and make sure they know they can enroll in their original school.

The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act of 1987 became part of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. Illinois has its own law, the Education for Homeless Children Act of 1994, which includes specific procedures for resolving any disputes that arise.