Qualified graduates of Chicago’s public high schools will be eligible for a free ride at one of the city’s seven community colleges under a scholarship program announced today by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman.
The Chicago Star Scholarship will cover the costs of tuition, fees and books to one of the City Colleges “pathway programs” for Chicago Public Schools graduates who have at least a 3.0 grade-point average and are academically ready for college-level math and English courses.
Eligible students must first apply for federal and state financial aid. Once those applications are complete, the Star Scholarship will cover costs for up to three years above any state or federal aid the student receives.
Hyman estimated the scholarships will cost City Colleges about $2 million the first year, and said the money will come from greater efficiencies in the system, such as establishing a single nursing at Malcolm X College instead of funding several separate nursing programs.
The scholarship announcement comes as Emanuel faces deep frustration among voters over his handling of the schools, and a re-election run that could pit him against Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. Lewis has yet to say she’ll be a candidate.
City Colleges — the state’s largest community college network — is continuing a “reinvention” campaign meant to boost the low percentage of students who transfer to a four-year institution or go on to get bachelor’s degrees.
Hyman has said the college system loses more than half its students before the completion of their first 15 credit hours.
“The mayor and I have been discussing for some time, how can we take that money and address other barriers that students are facing so that we can make sure that they get through this system,” Hyman said Wednesday.
Emanuel also said the City Colleges will save money by making sure many of the students who apply for the scholarship are prepared for college-level English and math classes, thereby cutting the roughly $40 million the community colleges spend each year on remedial classes.
“Given those efficiencies and savings, you don’t hold onto it, even though the City Colleges credit rating is tremendous,” the mayor said. “The fact is, you make sure that you keep opening and improving the education.”
Rasmus Lynnerup, a City Colleges vice chancellor, said the scholarship’s cost estimate was based on a CPS estimate that 500 and 1,000 students graduate from high school each year with at least a 3.0 GPA but do not go on to college.
Lynnerup said 85 percent of CPS graduates qualify to get all their tuition, book and fee costs covered by various state and federal grants, leaving City Colleges to come up with about $2 million to cover those costs for the remaining 15 percent of students.
