Anxiety simmered in the days before Chicago's school year began. Everyone there knew about the city's intractable gang problems, the explosive violence that came with it -- and the dangerous, shifting territories schoolchildren might cross even more often just to get to school.
Chicago Public Schools had just gone through the largest school consolidation in U.S. history -- 55 schools absorbed students from 49 that closed. Before the first day of classes in August, Chicago schools invested $155 million in some that remained open: new science labs, computers, libraries, air conditioning and art rooms meant to encourage parents to keep their children enrolled. To assuage fears about the journey to school, $8 million was spent to hire 600 additional workers for Safe Passage, a program that stations the watchful eyes of adults along popular walking routes to schools...