Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: No HS diploma without plan for graduation

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On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared on “CBS This Morning” to tout his newest proposal, which would require students to have a plan for their future before they would be allowed to receive a high school diploma.

“We live in a period of time where you earn what you learn,” Emanuel said. “The school system of K through 12 is not applicable to the world and the economy and the world that our high school students are graduating to. So we’re moving to a pre-K to college model.”

The proposal would require that graduating students produce an acceptance letter or other proof of their plans to move forward to a four-year university, a community college, a trade school or apprenticeship, an internship, or a branch of the armed services before they would be allowed to receive a high school diploma.

“Around 62 percent of our kids are already either accepted into college or accepted into community college, and our goal is to make sure nobody spikes the ball at 12th grade,” Emanuel said on Wednesday. “We want to make 14th grade universal. That’s the new goal line.”

“We want to make sure our kids do not see graduation from high school as the end point, but all of them have a plan and all of them have a specific acceptance on how to go to post-high-school education,” he added.