Saturday, August 25, 2018

Sun-Times: Vallas wants to dismantle Emanuel’s City Colleges makeover

 I'm going to say good luck with that Mr. Vallas. Paul Vallas ran as a candidate for Lt. Gov. with Pat Quinn in 2014 and was formerly CPS CEO under Mayor Richard M. Daley. He also was associated administratively with Chicago State University. Meanwhile the Sun-Times tells us what he'd like to change about the City Colleges of Chicago:
Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas vowed Thursday to dismantle Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s signature colleges-to-careers makeover that has allowed each of Chicago’s seven city colleges to prepare students for jobs in a particular growth industry.

The idea originated with former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Mayor Rahm Emanuel picked up the ball and ran with it.

Kennedy-King trains students for jobs in the culinary and hospitality industries. At Olive-Harvey, it’s transportation, distribution and logistics. Daley College focuses on engineering and advanced manufacturing. Malcolm X specializes in nursing and health sciences. Harold Washington’s specialty is business and professional services. At Wright, it’s information technology. At Truman, it’s education, human and natural sciences.

On Thursday, Vallas made the dismantling of those programs a centerpiece of his economic development plan for Chicago.

“Compare what’s being offered at Olive-Harvey with what’s being offered at Malcolm X and I’ll rest my case. Ask yourself whether the job training being offered at Olive-Harvey, 10 years from now, whether those same jobs are gonna be even in existence as opposed to the jobs being offered at Malcolm X,” Vallas told a news conference at his campaign headquarters.

“What I’m saying is that there should be a series of core programs that are offered in all the colleges and that are accessible to everybody.”
Now this makes sense right? Of course the current administration objects to this:
Emanuel campaign spokesperson Caron Brookens was incensed by Vallas proposing to undo a program that she said has made City Colleges relevant with curricula designed by executives in those fields.

“The fact that he would propose decimating a pipeline from Chicago’s City Colleges to good jobs and good paychecks might be another telling reason he was pushed out of Chicago State,” Brookens wrote in email to the Sun-Times, referring to Vallas’ brief tenure as chief administrative officer at the Far South Side school.

Brookens was equally sour about the rest of Vallas’ plan to rebuild what he called, Chicago’s “forgotten communities.”
Sooooo, my two cents I attended the City Colleges years ago before the emphasis on college to career. In the last decade it seemed each of the colleges lost their identities - even though it's all part of one system. Why not get back to that and allow each college a core program accessible to everyone.

Meanwhile if you read the whole things a number of campaign happenings going on there not just with the discussion of the City Colleges. Let's just say Vallas thinks any attempt by Mayor Emanuel to invest in the city's neighborhoods - especially on the south and west sides - are too little, too late.

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