State Reports

Items listed under State Reports have been received by the Documents Unit, Illinois State Library, Springfield, and are usually available from public libraries in the state through inter-library loan. Issuing agencies may have copies available. For items listed under Other Reports, write to the publisher as noted.

State Reports

■  Child Care Options Kit For Illinois Employers, Department of Children and Family Services, Office of Child and Family Development, 406 E. Monroe, Springfield 62701 (September 1990), 65 pp. (in loose-leaf binder).

More than half of women with children under age 6 now work full-time. Whether they are single parent workers or part of a two-working-parent couple, child care is a crucial issue. This kit, created by a coalition of business and government leaders, describes a number of advantages for employers who offer child care support and discusses four options available to employers, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each: service provision, information, easing the financial burden, and flexible time. In addition it highlights several exemplary business-community child-care projects and provides additional written materials and names of resource people.

Other Reports

■   Coming Out of the Ice: A Plan to Make the 1990s Illinois' Decade, The Heartland Institute, 634 S. Wabash. Chicago 60605 (March 1990), 355 pp.

The essays presented in this volume offer detailed descriptions of current policy, analysis of key issues and strategic plans for improving the state's condition. They are divided into three sections. The first, on taxes and economic growth, suggests that cutting state and local taxes is the most important single step a state can take to improve its economic growth rate. The second, on public service delivery, indicates that high-quality, low-cost public services are a second essential element of a state's business climate. Section three, dealing with the regulatory environment, finds that regulation handicaps businesses and hurts customers.

■   The Chicago Affordable Housing Fact Book: A Resource for Community Action, Chicago Rehab Network, 53 W. Jackson, Chicago 60604 (June 1990), 180 pp.

The purpose of this volume is to give everyone who is concerned about Chicago's housing crisis a data base about the actual situation. Almost half of it is comprised of maps of 77 community areas along with detailed information in 19 categories about each. The information given covers such things as the total number of housing units in 1980 and 1989, the number of buildings needing major repair, the median household income in 1986 and the number of Federal Housing Administration defaults. Another lengthy section consists of 11 tables detailing such things as the number of vacant lots, number of U.S. Housing and Urban Development-subsidized buildings and information about lead poisoning in each of the 77 community areas.

■  A Study of Homeless Adolescents in DuPage County, Health Services Research, University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Rockford, 1601 Parkview Ave., Rockford 61107 (September 1990), 34 pp.

The federal census estimates that DuPage County grew by 15.5 percent between 1980 and 1988, with much of the growth due to the rapid increase in upscale jobs. Such jobs, however, require large numbers of support services, which are provided by the less affluent. Many of these are young people. Interviews with 51 youth service providers and a study of the DuPage County situation (funded by the Department of Children and Family Services' youth and community services division) suggest that there may be as many as 2,900 homeless adolescents in the county during the course of a year. This study describes the characteristics of homeless adolescents in DuPage County as well as the social services available to them and offers a number of specific recommendations about how to improve the situation.

■  Financing Illinois Schools in the 1990s: Reaching a Consensus, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, Western Illinois University, Macomb 61455 (1990), 172 pp.

On January 24-25, 1990, 128 individuals representing every imaginable group associated with Illinois public schools met at Western Illinois University to address the issue of school funding in this state. This publication provides the proceedings of that meeting, the papers that were presented, findings of the working groups and reactions from a 12-member panel of experts. In addition, the appendices offer a number of organizational position papers, along with further background reading. Funding of this state's public schools is sure to be a hot topic during the next session of the General Assembly. Those involved in the decisionmaking process, as well as anyone interested in this seemingly insoluble problem, should study the ideas presented in this volume.

Anna J. Merritt

December 1990/Illinois Issues/33