By Giovanni Roman, Pritzker College Prep

Opinion Writing

Chicago , Illinois, home to thousands of homicides year round, has been gaining attention, not only nationwide, but worldwide, because of its increasing gun violence. Chicago’s gun violence has been an ongoing problem for the past years, with over 2,000 shooting incidents in 2016, the number in 2017 by April has been 1,000, half of the shooting’s in 2016 in under three months.

Photo taken by Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times 

Chicago’s gun violence is seen as a gang-violence or gang related problem, when in reality it goes back to a educational problem. Chancelor Bennett, better known as “Chance the Rapper”, a grammy-award winning artist, in an interview where he donates one million dollars to Chicago Public Schools, and an additional ten thousand dollars to ten high schools, states “Today I am proud to announce that I am donating one million dollars to CPS to support arts and enrichment programing….. This check that I donated is a call to action, I’m challenging major companies and corporations in Chicago and all across the US to donate and to take action.”

Governor, Bruce Rauner, controversially vetoed a bill that would of helped CPS debt problem. The $215 million would of helped ease the $1 billion long term debt CPS holds, the bill being vetoed worsens the problem for CPS. The chances of ending the school year early in Chicago Public Schools were really high because of the budget cut.

Chance’s efforts to get students more engaged in school activities and programs is a  huge step to keep kids in school, rather than dropping out. Data shows that areas where social services and education facilities don’t functionally operate well, have an increase in violence. Chance recognized this and has done more in a day, then  Governor Rauner has in one year.

As a student part of Chicago and semi part of CPS, I strongly appreciate what Chance has done to help children in need of a better education. What he has done could inspire future stars to do the same, easing down the gang violence in the city.

Chance the Rapper’s call to action is not only to artists, politicians, and companies, but to the children of Chicago who are being given the opportunity of a better education in order for them to be successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAZiyKunYRI