Twenty-six new or revitalized public schools will open in Chicago Tuesday, including a pilot textbook-free school at the former Austin High building. Students at the Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment will have personal laptops where they could watch and participate in online lessons that feature animation, videos and tests.

Aside from the school electronic notebooks, the students will also receive home computers they could use to submit assignments, papers and confirm their attendance or converse with the teacher.

While VOISE will have an all-digital curriculum, their daily lessons will still be guided by human teachers.

Meanwhile, students from Chicago public high schools will not attend their first day of classes Tuesday, but will instead gather at two North Shore schools to break the different treatment of wealthy and poor students.

About 2,000 students will try to enroll at the New Trier Township High School and Sunset Ridge School, known for their affluent students and high academic standards. Officials of the two schools insist students who want to enroll in the two schools must meet residency requirements.

To accommodate the new students, the two schools plan to open one campus at the 9th-grade educational facility in Northfield. Over 100 school administrators and local village officials will be on hand to supervise the registration.

Behind the move is state Sen. James Meeks who is pushing for the approval of a three-year $120 million program to boost the academic standing of students from low-scoring schools. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Michael Madigan failed to publicly commit to finance the school improvement program, prompting Meeks to organize the boycott and re-enrollment.