Surviving the first few weeks of parenthood. IMSA was meant to address the inequities across the state by providing certain kinds of learning that local school districts do not provide. If things went well, other gifted residence schools were meant to be built in other parts of Illinois. It's obvious that IMSA has been a success, but the board decided it would cost too much money and chose to not build other academies across the state. But other schools aren't given the money, so the students suffer.
High schools are the anchor of strong communities.
They get extended learning time for mentorship and leadership opportunities. To be here, obviously, our students must be removed from their families. They're separated from Mom and Dad, from the family dog, from people in their church, their home community. Those people become a step removed from the lives of these children. They communicate more by e-mail and phone than in person.