CHICAGO — Partners in Chicago’s CREATE program have donated $200,000 to bolster science, technology, engineering, and math education at eight locations as part of the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project.
The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, created to address bottlenecks in the Chicago-area rail network, is making the STEM program donations to five Chicago Public Schools campuses, Leo High School, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Chicago Public Library as part of the 75th Street project. That project on Chicago’s south side, the most complex to date in the CREATE program, will create a flyover where a diamond crossing now exists, as well addressing grade-crossing separation in an area of rail and road congestion.
“Despite the challenges presented to us during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CREATE Program partners are proud to support students and their families to continue their educational endeavors,” Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman said in a press release. “We understand the challenges have been many but that means many hands must support the work.”
CREATE is a partnership of government entities, Amtrak, Metra, the Association of American Railroads, and individual Chicgo-area railroads. To date, it has completed 31 of a planned 70 projects.
I wonder how much of my tax dollars paid in South Carolina is going to Chicago schools.