Why Rahm Emanuel’s proposed graduation requirement became social media fodder
Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a new prerequisite for graduation in Chicago public high schools this week to mixed reviews.
What some have deemed as a much needed innovation to the public school system, others view Emanuel’s graduation proposal as an oversimplified solution to a complex situation affecting many of the city’s underprivileged youth.
Wednesday, Emanuel’s administration hosted a news conference to discuss the polarizing mayor’s new strategy to get more Chicago youth to graduate with a high school diploma. Chicago’s graduating seniors will be required to provide a letter of acceptance to a college, university, military branch or trade school to complete their primary education, according to Emanuel’s plan. There also are other alternatives like pursuing a “gap year” and accepting a job offer following graduation.
The mayor appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss the proposal in more detail, and put the onus on kids to “adapt”
Emanuel and his staff have positioned the graduation proposal as an effort to make Chicago the first large urban school district to mandate a plan for developing the lives of young people after high school.
The mayor of the Windy City raised a valid point, stating today’s economy has phased out much of the prospects of the high school diploma. Even for the least specialized full-time careers, it is expected that qualified candidates have at least an associate degree or some college experience.
The days of walking into an office and working your way to senior level are few and numbered. Many Millennials can’t wait in the lobby of a corporate office without collegiate credentials and prior experience.
It is critical, especially in a city with as many disadvantaged youths as Chicago, that we are training students for success in the future of the work force. It is detrimental for the kids and society to perpetuate methods that aren’t helping students excel and live productive lives. On that, Emanuel and I are on the same page.
What he gets drastically incorrect is the implied notion that these kids lack the ambition and drive to succeed in life after high school.
As a young man and college graduate from the west side of Chicago, I saw kids with more aptitude for academics and higher test scores wash out of the educational system without completing their primary education. The issue wasn’t in their will to graduate, but the circumstances that exist in the culture of poverty and of being disadvantaged. I had classmates that put school on the back burner to get a job to help pay the family bills, and there were some that felt pressured to “hustle,” because they were 16-year-olds without any job skills or training.
If we are to be honest, the graduation rate in Chicago is primarily a Brown and Black issue. According to a statistics released by the Chicago Tribune last year, African-American students had a CPS graduation rate of nearly 67 percent, with Black males topping out at an astonishing rate of 57 percent. For reference, White (non-hispanic) students graduated at 87 percent, with the boys averaging almost 20 points higher than their Black counterparts at 76 percent.
Despite a sub-60 percent graduation rate for Black boys, Emanuel lauded the work being done in local education —a far cry from his graduation proposal less than a year later.
“Not only are more Chicago students graduating than ever before, they’re also moving on to college at a higher rate than ever before — a direct result of the hard work by our students, parents, teachers and school leaders,” Emanuel said to the Tribune last year.
What is really discouraging about the mayor’s proposal is the idea that having a “plan” following graduation is what is most prominent in fixing the city’s dysfunctional educational system.
How about we help kids get through the four years of high school to graduate by investing in after school programs, athletic opportunities and a much more robust summer jobs initiative? How about finding a way to fund public schools with equity and not by zip codes, zones and tax brackets?
If Emanuel spent any significant time among the intelligent, wonderfully gifted kids similar to the ones I had the pleasure of growing and developing with, he’d see that they don’t need an “extra push” in the right direction. They need a world (and a mayor) that treats them as precious as the tender white babies that have little issues with funding at their schools.
When community college is offered for free to any CPS graduate that maintains a B average, and guaranteed to every public school graduate, it appears that his proposal will ultimately end up as a band-aid solution to save face as his public image plunges.
With the mayor slashing funds to education and supporting budgets that will cut into public school funding, Chicago residents haven’t bought into his intentions regarding the city’s education crisis. On Twitter, #otherRahmRequirements is gaining popularity. Those concerned about the situation in Chicago took to Twitter to let Rahm know how they feel.
Here are their greatest hits:
