Preckwinkle Questions Elite School Enrollment

As the Democratic nominee for Cook County Board president, Toni Preckwinkle is the heavy favorite in the November election. For now, though, she remains the alderman of the 4th Ward, and she used that position today to grill Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman about the latest enrollment figures at the city’s elite high schools.

According to a report released today by schools officials, the new freshman class that will begin at “selective enrollment” high schools is expected to be 33 percent Hispanic, 32 percent African-American, 23 percent white and 10 percent Asian. Those numbers represent slight drops for white, blacks and Asians compared to the 2009-2010 school year, while the percentage of Hispanics is projected to rise from 28 percent in the last school year.

Preckwinkle said a rise of Hispanics and a decline for all other races is “not, I think, what we hoped would be the result.

“It’s troubling to me — let’s put it that way,” said Preckwinkle, who is African-American, at a meeting this morning of the City Council’s Education Committee. “It’s not that I begrudge the Latino community anything.”

Huberman replied that Hispanic students represent more than 40 percent of all students in the public school system. Their rising numbers at the top high schools, he said, could merely be a reflection of demographic change in the city.

“We need to do that analysis,” Huberman said. “We don’t feel we have conclusive analysis on that.”

He also said the final numbers could be different, depending on whether students accept offers to attend the elite high school.

The statistics cover nine schools: Brooks, Jones, Lane, King, Lindblom, Northside Prep, Walter Payton, Westinghouse and Whitney Young.

Admissions practices at the school are the subject of a federal investigation. Schools officials received a subpoena from federal investigators last year.