Chicago found a shockingly simple way to improve the lives of 315,000 children
In a political era where “innovation” usually means simply finding a new way to destroy and make things harder, Chicago just did something pretty refreshing: it made something easier. And it did so with little effort.
As reported by Block Club ChicagoMayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Public Library have rolled out a citywide expansion of the “81 Club.” It’s a program that automatically turns every Chicago Public Schools student ID into a fully functional library card. Students don’t have to fill out forms, wait in lines, or cut through any bureaucratic red tape. If you’re a student in Chicago, you’re in. You now have a library card. Simple as that.
More than 315,000 children now have instant access to books, databases, guidance and all kinds of digital learning tools. The expanded horizons of a public library system are now at their fingertips, and they didn’t even have to do anything.
Chicago just gave 315,000 kids a library card without making them do anything
The idea sounds so obvious, so simple, so elegantly executed, that it almost seems suspicious. Especially in this day and age in the US, when politicians seem to go to great lengths to destroy it rather than build it, to complicate rather than simplify, to make what should be intuitive scary. Instead of building another program that doesn’t just require steps like proving eligibility, the city used its existing infrastructure in the form of the student IDs automatically assigned to each child and paired it with the city’s shared data systems to remove the barrier.
The idea is to provide instant access to hundreds of thousands of students while removing the friction that often prevents it.
And the best part? They already know it works. Thanks to a 2022 pilot program, Chicago officials already know that converting a student ID to a library card led to an astounding 63 percent increase in library access among economically disadvantaged students and an 81 percent increase among English language learners. They found that in some neighborhoods, student participation in the 81 Club now exceeds traditional library card ownership. It is a seismic shift that could potentially change the course of thousands of lives.
Another elegantly brilliant part of the plan accounts for students most likely to fall through the cracks, such as unaccompanied children, foster children and children from undocumented families, by not requiring additional documentation.
In addition to the instant access provided to more than 300,000 students, the program also includes several creative elements designed to increase student engagement, such as student-designed library cards that give children a sense of participation and ownership.
It’s certainly a feel-good story, but I’m struck by how unusually creative it is for a modern government. Maybe it’s just that we’re all prisoners of low standards and unimaginative thinking, but it’s quite refreshing to see public policy rethinking how power is distributed. Especially when it is not to regulate or limit the power of the people, but to expand it.
