Chicago State Still Mired in Political and Financial Problems
“remarkably poor” graduation and retention rates”
This school has been circling the drain for months. At some point, doesn’t it make sense to let it go?
The Chicago Sun Times reports:
Students languish amid grandstanding at Chicago State University
There are three rich ironies about Chicago State University.
Our politics have taken a new, byzantine turn. On Monday, the university’s board of trustees are scheduled to consider Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recommendation that Paul Vallas be put in charge of the predominantly African American school on the city’s Far South Side.
That’s the same Paul Vallas who once ran the Chicago Public Schools for Mayor Richard M. Daley. The Paul Vallas who later took his “turnaround” portfolio to public school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Haiti.
The Paul Vallas who ran as former Gov. Pat Quinn’s running mate in their brutal and failed bid to defeat Rauner in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
No hard feelings, apparently. In January, Rauner appointed Vallas to the Chicago State board. Now the governor wants his political rival to run the beleaguered school.
Chicago State is an academic lifeline for working class and low-income black students on the South Side. Rocked with management, fiscal and political maladies for years, the 150-year-old institution teeters on the edge of existence.
In 2009 the Higher Learning Commission reported that Chicago State suffered from “remarkably poor” graduation and retention rates, chaotic management and poor finances. Those “grave” concerns threatened the school’s accreditation.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
