By Steve Rhodes
“Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he wants the open-admissions policy at the city’s colleges to be thrown out,” WBEZ reports. “Daley says about $30 million is spent on special classes for students who are lagging behind.”
Students who are lagging behind because they attended Chicago Public Schools.
Last week the mayor sent his hand-picked city colleges chief and old hand Gery Chico to the Sun-Times editorial board to soften the ground. Mission accomplished. The resulting Sun-Times story didn’t include a single critical voice, though it did lift a “quote” from a University of Illinois professor from a news release put out in July.
Didn’t anyone here go to J school?
That story allowed this gruesome statement by Chico to go unchallenged:
“Why is it the responsibility of Chicago community colleges to spend $30 million a year to pick up lost math and reading skills? I’m not saying that as a society we shouldn’t be charged with doing that someplace. But why is it placed in the lap of higher education?”
Let someone else do it!
Like, um . . . someone else!
Of course, those math and reading skills were lost in the public schools that Chico used to run. What’s next, naming Chico president of the U of I, where he’ll lambaste the performance of city colleges?
Now, if that so-called $30 million is pumped back into CPS instead, maybe we’ve got something here. Not likely.
Not only that, but there is a theory behind open admissions: Everybody gets a chance. Isn’t that the way up and out for some people?
“Chico and new Chancellor Cheryl Hyman argued that those students might be better and more inexpensively served through programs run by alternative high schools,” today’s Sun-Times report says.
Right.
“In the future, Hyman wants to identify and assist lower-performing Chicago Public high school students before they even apply to City Colleges.”
Right.
I’m pretty sure neither of those things is going to happen. Let’s see the plan first.
And let’s be clear: This is about cost-cutting not education. The mayor is saying there are some folks – motivated enough to pursue a college education – whom we just can’t afford to educate anymore.
Bad Day Chicago
I’ve long argued that Fox Chicago News is underrated, probably because of the taint of the national Fox brand, but I have to say the station’s new version of its Good Day Chicago morning show is too painful to watch.
Corey McPherrin and Anna Davlantes hardly make an “attractive and personable team“; they are grating and unctuous. You know – TV people.
Regular readers know I was a fan of the previous version, but now I’m lost in the mornings.
That’s Ozzie!
Just when my dislike of Ozzie Guillen was starting to soften he goes and pulls his woe-is-me act again. Mr. Macho sure is a crybaby.
At The Movies?
Hey, let’s dress like we’re in a Tom Cruise thriller!
Alternate: Hey, let’s dress like we’re in a middle-aged sequel to Swingers!
That’s Desiree!
I really have nothing funny to say about this; the jokes are too easy.
*
In a statement, Rogers said “I am humbled to have such an incredible opportunity.”
So Rogers is starting her publishing career on a lie – she’s never been humbled.
O’Hare Screws Virgin
“Virgin America plans to begin flights to and from Dallas, its first midcontinent destination, after failing for more than two years to secure airport gates in Chicago,” the Tribune reports.
Apparently Virgin balked when the city demanded unmarked euros in a paper bag.
Misquote of the Day
A morning laugh for anybody who’s ever talked with former state Senate President Emil Jones and never heard him sound anything remotely like this:
“Zimek’s automatic rapid decontamination and disinfection technology is a powerful addition to our arsenal of weapons to fight infectious diseases and biohazard attacks,” Senator Jones said. “Zimek’s technology can meaningfully help hospitals throughout our country improve infection control quality standards and ensure they use best practices to comply with new federal provisions issued by CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) which encourage hospitals to disclose and, proactively, reduce their healthcare acquired infections (HAIs). HAIs will now be tied to hospital Medicare reimbursement incentives.”
Cutler vs. Favre
Surprise!
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Biohazardous to your health.
Posted on August 11, 2010