CPS students earn record $157 million in college

Students from this spring's chicago public schools graduating class collected nearly $157 million in college scholarships, nearly twice the $82 million earned the year before and a district record, officials said Wednesday.

mayor richard daley announced the windfall for city students at a morning news conference at morgan park high school.

This year's haul is more than 10 times the amount that graduates earned in 2004, the first year school officials began tracking the scholarship money. At that point, students earned a relatively paltry $14 million, Daley said.

"This is the greatest achievement in government, to see all those young people improving their lives," Daley said.

"The students have worked tremendously hard to earn every penny of these awards . . . this is good news not only for us but for the nation. Education is the answer to all the social ills."

morgan park was chosen for the announcement because its students earned among the largest number of scholarships. The school's $3.5 million total was up from $588,000 the year before. About 22 schools reported at least $1 million in scholarship money this year.

Daley also trumpeted the recent announcement of record high state test scores for the district and the record number of students taking advanced placement exams.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 |

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