Emanuel: Education Key To Chicago's Future
CHICAGO (CBS 2) - Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel called Education the key to Chicago's future as well as his own, as Mayor Wednesday. CBS 2's Chief Correspondent Jay Levine covered the Emanuel campaign and spent much Wednesday with Emanuel.
During the campaign, Emanuel visited hundreds of "L" stops, neighborhood businesses and restaurants. But even after being elected it seems he has not slowed down.
You better move fast if you're trying to keep up with the Mayor-elect. Emanuel often juggles talking on the phone while responding to emails. While driving from stop to stop he makes more calls and catches up on the news.
Before 10 a.m. Wednesday morning Emanuel had greeted commuters on the Brown Line, visited a north side fire station, as part of his continuing dialogue with firefighters about pension reform, and tested a new theory on starting the college prep process earlier on a local principal.
"8th grade or 7th grade, so you know college is in the cards for you," Emanuel said.
It was at Kenwood High School, with its traditional, magnet, and gifted student programs, that Emanuel seemed to find the recipe he'd like to serve up at all public schools.
"The three components that make up the special sauce of education; principals, teachers, and parents," according to Emanuel. "We've got some tough choices ahead of us for our schools but I look around here and feel optimistic that we can meet them head on.
Emanuel wants to reward excellence in principals and teachers with bonuses and also involve parents, because in his view, the fate of the schools will be a key indicator of his success or failure as mayor.
"That to me is the ultimate where we're going to be at the end of 4 years. Have we turned that ship around on expectations on what our school system can do? And that families are not fleeing Chicago, but coming back to Chicago, because our school system is a competitive school system," said Emanuel.
The grueling campaign seems like to have taken a toll on his energy, his enthusiasm or sense of humor displayed at a Washington roast over the weekend.
"You know, you should here what my brothers say, it's a lot worse. Better to be kind of the center of jokes, rather than the center of the equation," Emanuel said about the D.C. roast.
