With increasing poverty rates and violence in our city at an all-time high, law enforcement alone won’t create the kind of significant and sustainable change we need. More education will.
Education is key to lifting individuals, families and communities out of poverty. It leads to jobs and economic security. It’s time to stop?ignoring the fact that areas with better access to quality education also have a better quality of life.
Education is the fuel that will rebuild Chicago. Yet, while more Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students are graduating than ever before, only 63% continue their education after high school and only 27% earn their diploma.
According to ThinkImpact, more than half of students who drop out of college say it’s because they can no longer afford it. In fact, according to the Chicago-based Partnership for College Completion, low-income students only have a marginally better chance of graduating college today than they did 30 years ago.
Only a quarter of CPS graduates receive college scholarships, and that’s not good enough. We need to change the paradigm with a bold, new approach to the form and function of scholarships, one whose mission is to think differently about how we create opportunity.
So, here’s a homegrown idea: a unique multigenerational approach that transforms the lives of high school seniors who attend Chicago Public Schools in underresourced communities by providing scholarships that allow them to graduate college or vocational school debt-free — and also transform their parents’ lives with the same scholarship offer to further their own education and build a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
Broadening the population of people with access to post-secondary-school education like this is the idea behind Hope Chicago, whose goal isn’t to give people a way out of their communities through education, but out of poverty. When that happens, they can stay in those communities if they choose and help make them better, safer places to live for everyone.
This revolutionary, multigenerational approach is also multifaceted and goes beyond ensuring that students can graduate college debt-free by making up the difference between the aid they receive elsewhere and the final cost of school.
In addition to partnering with CPS, colleges and vocational schools in Chicago to help students prepare and plan for college, Hope Chicago also is working with other organizations to provide “wraparound” support that includes nontuition costs such as books, food and housing — as well as mentoring and counseling starting in high school — to ensure students can apply to and stay in college.
A new approach such as this is urgently needed because it can make both a long-term and near-term impact (that’s the beauty of the idea). Long-term because once students graduate college, their earning power will increase throughout their working lives, and they will be in a position to make a difference in their communities for a long time to come.
We know from research, however, that when parents further their education, their earning power increases far sooner, often within a year, benefiting entire families and neighborhoods. Not only that, but research also shows that when students and their parents are in school at the same time, they both have a greater chance of finishing their educational journey.
This new model is a win-win for them and a win for the rest of us who want to see Chicago thrive. I believe we’ll find the money for this; now we need to find the will to see it through.
That’s why we’re doing more than just asking the city’s corporations to donate money. When it comes to education, our corporate community needs to get off the sidelines. We’re asking them to invest in their future — and ours — by partnering with us to create career pipeline opportunities so college and vocational school graduates can find good jobs right here at home. Students will benefit, of course, but down the line, so will the companies that hire them.
Students, whether they are about to graduate high school or their parents, are our future. We need to think differently about how to create more opportunities for them to learn and grow, to challenge themselves and change the trajectory of their lives through education. When we do, they’ll not only reach their promise but increase the potential of Chicago to reach its own.
Janice K. Jackson is the CEO of Hope Chicago. She also is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Previously, she served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
More Top Picks Best Portable Toilets For Camping
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].