Both stances had been criticized by mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who called the City College scholarships a product of an Emanuel smoke machine, while citing a “multitude of concerns” about the $160 million plan for the Ashland BRT.
The debate over the two issues came on a busy Good Friday for the two candidates heading into their final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday’s first-ever mayoral runoff, as each hit campaign stops citywide in efforts to persuade voters.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that half the 5,264 students who graduated last year with a 3.0 grade-point average would be disqualified by the additional requirement that they score at least a 21 on both the math and English sections of the ACT.
That dramatically limits the reach of a scholarship offer that has been a focus of Emanuel’s campaign commercials and standard stump speeches and a key selling point in his pitch to African-American voters who are expected to decide Tuesday’s runoff.
On Friday, the mayor defended the additional string attached.
“Since we’re taking the money of remedial education . . . and it’s going into rewarding, in my view, success, we want to make sure those kids can achieve that. It ensures the integrity of it. We work with the kids for a year. It’s different than other scholarships. We actually help you get this. It’s unique, which is why the president also came up with a national model,” the mayor said.
“You know the cost of college is one of the crushing effects on middle-class families. We’re providing, for the first time, not only free [tuition] if you earn a B average so you have a responsibility. We’re also providing you a community college system whose education now counts for something,” Emanuel said. “The community colleges are focused on the jobs we’re getting today. We’re making sure that no family gets crushed by the cost of higher education. You have to earn a B average. And we even help you along the way for at least a year so you can get it.”
That’s not how Garcia sees the so-called “Star Scholarship” program.
“It sounds great, but in effect, it will benefit very few students. . . . In reality, very few students will be eligible for it and those [who] have a B average and a 21 on the ACT test — they’re probably better off going to a state university or a college,” Garcia said during a taping of the WLS-AM (890) Radio program, “Connected to Chicago” to be broadcast at 7 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s largely another P.R. effort on the part of the mayor to say that he’s doing great things for ordinary people in Chicago. . . . He can afford to buy all of those ads and tout so many things. And people have a hard time, sometimes, understanding spin from reality,” he said.
Garcia pointed to a recent study by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research that raised questions about the long-term effects of steering CPS students to a two-year college. The study shows only 7 percent of CPS students who enroll in a two-year college end up with a degree.