Chicago Public Schools has just made a new requirement for students to get their high school diplomas, on the behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Chicago is now the first city to require students to have a job, college acceptance letter, gap-year program enrollment, or military enlistment, all before they walk the stage.
According to the Shade Room
“It sounds good on paper, but the problem is that when you’ve cut the number of counselors in schools, when you’ve cut the kind of services that kids need, who is going to do this work?” said Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union. “If you’ve done the work to earn a diploma, then you should get a diploma. Because if you don’t, you are forcing kids into more poverty.”
However, Mayor Rahm Emanuel sees the policy as a means to ensure students are making future plans and looking beyond the four years of high school.