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Bus tour examines bumps in road to county's success.
BY JOHN ROSZKOWSKI | STAFF WRITER, Lake Forester

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Tom Lenz, lead organizer of Lake County United, pointed to similar trends in communities with large Latino and minority populations like Waukegan and North Chicago. In Lake County in 2004, 67 percent of people 25 and older had at least some college education and 42 percent had bachelor's or graduate degrees. But 64 percent of Waukegan residents 25 or older had only a high school degree or less.

Fonte said schools work hard to reverse that trend and make sure all students are prepared for college. That work, he said, must begin in high school with greater emphasis on core curriculum courses like math, English and science and better preparation for college entrance exams.

"We need to understand what the scope of the problem is and we need to have an action plan," he said.

Health issues

Other issues discussed during the tour were the need for additional services for the county's uninsured population and poverty. According to a recent report, it's estimated the county has 86,682 uninsured residents.

Among the stops on the bus tour was Healthreach, Inc., a non-profit health clinic in Waukegan which serves uninsured county residents. Jim Zimmerman, executive director and CEO of Healthreach, said the clinic has experienced a 20 percent annual growth in the number of uninsured residents it serves.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, Anderson said the Lake County Community Foundation has donated $500,000 to assist organizations that help low-income residents like the Healthreach clinic.

For many members of the group, the tour was an eye-opening experience.

"I think one of the focuses of the bus trip is to create an awareness of some of the issues facing Lake County and ways we hope to impact issues like education and health care," said Kitty Lansing of Lake Forest, a member of the foundation board. "There's tended to be kind of a lack of awareness in the southeastern part of the county of some of the needs in the rest of the county."