Why Is Chicago Mayor's Decision To Force High Schoolers To Have A Post-School Plan Being Criticized?

The decision by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to make it mandatory for public school students in the city to disclose their plans after high school has drawn flak, with many pointing out technical flaws in the directive.

According to the mayor's plan, starting 2020, all students eligible for a graduating high school diploma would have to demonstrate they have any one of the following lined up: a job, admission to college, an apprenticeship or internship, a place in a gap-year program or enlistment in the military.

This has led many to question the extent to which a child’s high school can be realistically involved in ensuring their graduates receive further training.

The fact that the school system itself has created a list of careers which can be considered “worthy” of a diploma leaves very little choice for students who wish to pursue careers not part of that list, and run the risk of not getting a diploma.

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Some experts have also pointed out that admittance to any high school graduate was guaranteed by the City Colleges of Chicago, a system of seven community colleges. This creates a risky possibility that the high schools will get every graduating senior to apply for admission, whether they intend to go or not.

Moreover, high schools in the state have undergone drastic staff cuts in 2016. While teachers were laid off, support teaching staff including guidance counselors lost their jobs. And in the city’s poorest schools, one guidance counselors is assigned to more than 450 students. Most of these counselors haven't been trained in college and career readiness and often are unequipped to give students good advice, according to reports. This is also thought to happen due to shortfalls in funding for counselor training.

Moreover, schools have barely managed to fund the last few weeks of the school year, although the mayor sated that he would try to raise $1 million from private donors to help solve the cash crunch.

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According to the Washington Post, this plan does not address the fact that many graduating teenagers are from impoverished, violence-wracked neighborhoods with few jobs. Those qualified to go to college cannot afford it.

Another flaw pointed out is that Chicago has the worst black unemployment of any of the five biggest cities in the country. Across the U.S., a staggering 51.3 percent of young black high school graduates are unemployed or underemployed (that is, forced to work part time involuntarily or giving up on finding a job). A majority of young black high school graduates are looking for full-time work and can’t find it. The mayor’s plan does not take into consideration these statistics.