MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

As the season of commencement ceremonies winds down and collegiate graduates go off to make their way in the world, I would like to recognize the Chicago Nine for giving us the CPS Six.

The Chicago Nine are the nine Chicago Democrats who run Illinois--into the ground. They control more than $70 billion worth of government and 125,000 public sector jobs, including the billions of dollars spent and tens of thousands of jobs funded at the Chicago Public Schools.

The CPS Six are the six of every 100 freshman in the Chicago Public School system--a system of 400,000 children--who will go on to earn a bachelor's degree by the age of 25.

It is only through their tenacious commitment to the status quo that the Chicago Nine have managed to keep CPS students' success to such a manageable rate.

Think of what would happen without the Chicago Nine's stewardship.

We know that a college degree is increasingly the difference between the haves and the have-nots in our society. On average, a person with a college degree will earn twice as much income over their life as a person with only a high school diploma and, in our digital age, that gap is widening.

Persons with college degrees are exponentially more likely to be independent, successful adults.

That's all well and good for a few people but could you imagine if the numbers in CPS were flipped and non-college graduates were the anomalies?

More self-sufficient adults mean fewer dependents of the state. This, in turn, would be the ruin of the Chicago Nine. Who wants to live in such a world? Certainly the Chicago Nine do not.

Lest you worry, the Chicago Nine are on the ball.

Why do you think the Chicago Nine have not expanded charter schools in Chicago? It certainly is not due to lack of demand. Currently, only 4% of CPS students go to charter schools while 13,000 families sit on waiting lists.

Some might question such an incongruity. I do not. I recognize the Chicago Nine know exactly what they are doing.