Chicago-St. Louis Amtrak travel getting upgraded from current 90 mph to 110 mph

Manitoba’s students are settling into a new school year. Whether you graduated in 1986 or 2006, today’s classrooms look very different from the ones you remember.

Students reflect the changing makeup of our communities — differences in social, emotional, physical and cognitive abilities and socioeconomic stresses are all increasingly present and adding to the complexity of our classrooms.

Meeting these differing individual needs is no easy feat. It requires manageable class sizes, school counsellors, social workers, specialized resource teachers and investment in the systems that can help students thrive. But when those supports aren’t available, students’ needs don’t disappear. Increasingly, it falls to classroom teachers to try to fill the gaps.

When I started working as a teacher more than 30 years ago, we had budgets for resources when we needed them. Today, the needs of students have diversified and increased, but the funding for our public schools is failing to meet them.

CHICAGO (AP) — Amtrak travel between Chicago and St. Louis is about to get 15 minutes quicker thanks to a high-speed rail project allowing trains to reach speeds of 110 mph (177 kph), Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday.

The higher speeds take effect June 26 and will reduce the duration of the trip from the current five hours and 13 minutes. Trips from St. Louis to Chicago are a few minutes shorter, according to Amtrak timetables.

Existing maximum speeds on the route are 90 mph (144.8 kph).

In addition to increasing speeds, the $1.96 billion project also provided safety improvements at 212 grade crossings, Pritzker said.