Chicago mayoral candidate wants to merge public K-12, community college systems

A Chicago mayoral candidate, Bill Daley, has proposed combining the city's public K-12 and community college systems with the goal of increasing degree attainment citywide, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.Daley — the son of one former Chicago mayor and the brother of another — said merging Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the City Colleges of Chicago could save up to $50 million. He said that could pay for all CPS graduates to attend community college for free.Other candidates, including a former City Colleges chairman and a past CPS CEO, said the supposed return wouldn't be worth the effort and that the two institutions have their own financial and operational woes. CPS has some 35,000 employees and the seven City Colleges have 4,315 combined.Daley's proposal would expand outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Chicago Star Scholarship, which pays the cost of tuition and books at the City Colleges for CPS students earning a 3.0 GPA. But its execution would be a challenge and require a change in state law.