Audience feel free to follow along on twitter using the hashtag press club. For our cspan and public radio audiences please be aware in our audience today are members of the general public. Any applause or reaction you may here is not necessarily a reaction of the working press. I would like to introduce our head table. Please hold your applause until each head table member has been introduced. Head table participants, please stand up when i say your name. We have jamaal, senior staff writer in Higher Education. We have gerri weller, former us representative from the 11th district and president of the Illinois State society in washington. We have a supervisor for ap radio in washington dc. We have star scholar, graduate of the Harry Truman College in chicago and northwestern student planning to study neuroscience. Catherine, washington correspondent for the chicago tribune. Arm and oh rodriguez, president of the sarah good stem academy. We have lisa matthews, Vice President of media relations, coleader of the Headliners Team. The guest speaker for a moment and Washington Bureau chief for the chicago suntimes, doctor Gregory Jones, printable it can what Academy High School in chicago and bob weiner, president of weiner public news, oped columnist and mpc Headliners Team member who helped organize the luncheon. Michael smith, ceo of green smith Public Affairs and contributor to campaigns and elections magazine. Caroline hendry, executive director of the education writers association. Thank you for joining us today. I would like to acknowledge additional members of the Headliners Team responsible for organizing the event, betsy fisher martin, kristin, eleanor herman, press club staff liaison lindsay underwood. Thank you all. [applause] long before todays guest became a politician, he attended Sarah Lawrence college, spent his first two years studying to become a preschool teacher before politics and long before he was president Barack Obamas chief of staff, chicago mayor rahm emanuel taught preschool. Maybe manuals love of education followed him throughout his political career, into his tenure as chicagos mayor where he oversees the thirdlargest system in the United States. He is credited with adding more than 200 hours to the school year taking chicago from having the least educational time of any of our School District in the country to being on par with his peers, he implemented full day kindergarten for every chicago child and fought for and won new accountability measures. During his tenure the districtwide Chicago PublicSchool SystemGraduation Rate has grown by 16 percentage points, 3 times the national average. Mary manual made chicago the first city in the country to offer Free Community college for all High School Graduates who earn a b average or better. Chicago change hasnt been easy for this big city mayor. Early in his first term chicago endured a historic teacher strike and the state budget impasse now entering its third year has had a devastating Financial Impact on chicago schools. He has also had to confront the citys persistent gun violence and grapple with the Police Department facing questions about its treatment of africanamericans. Even with this challenges, the mayor who is known as rambo in some circles has kept a steady eye on education. This year he introduced a plan called moving forward in chicago. It use graduation not is an end point but as a pathway to further education and employment. Mary manuals initiative will require High School Seniors to provide proof of college, a job offer or military service in order to graduate which starts in 2020. The atlantic called plans like the mayors a Seismic Shift in american education. Please join me in welcoming chicago mayor rahm emanuel to the National Press club. [applause] i just want you to know i started this job 62 and 250 pounds and now im 58 and 148 dripping wet after hearing that. Thank you for that introduction. A little over 30 years ago secretary William Bennett of education for Ronald Reagan called the Chicago PublicSchool System the worst Public School system in the United States of america. Let me give you the results today. Our Graduation Rate when i first became mayor was 57 and our freshman on track is for 87 , a growth of 52 . Second, our act scores after being flat are up over the last five years 1. 2 . Third, 42 of all our students today graduate with College Credit. While 85 of our kids are at or below the Poverty Level as defined by the federal United States government, 42 of our kids go on and accepted to college equal to the United States of america, and trust me our demographics is not the United States of america. Another 21 go on to Community Colleges where the rate is 22 nationally. So even though the demographics for the city of chicago is different, we match the United States of kids going from high school to college and Community College. Third, our eighth graders led the United States in math gains. Our fourth graders were third in overall reading gains. There were only three School Districts in the entire United States of america whose math and readings for fourth and eighth graders went up, cleveland, washington, d. C. , and the city of chicago. Every measure of the city of chicagos educational gains are pointing in the right direction and surpassing, and ill go back to high school for a second, our Graduation Rate for the last five years every year was triple the national average. So, if William Bennett could get through tsa i would like him to come back to the city of chicago and see what is happening. But every measure on high school, College Acceptance, college attendance, as well as in reading and math scores at fourth and eighth grade levels, chicago is exceeding the norm of the United States progress, while the demographics of the city of chicago students are not the norm for the United States of america. Now, some of the things that were noted earlier point to that direction of what was happening. When i became mayor half our kids had a full school day, i mean half our kids had a full day of kindergarten, half did not, and if you looked at the map the ones that were getting the full day could have deserved to get a half day and the ones that were getting a half day needed a full day. I did not think it was determinate upon the fact that you should have parents lobbying on your childs behalf for kindergarten. Every child in the city of chicago today has a full day of kindergarten. We have had a 60 increase in our prek, full day prek for all our children. We ran the first race to the top for our Early Childhood so parents can compare educational models of Early Childhood education, and we have dramatically also increased the funding, as i said, for full day prek for the city of chicago for all four year olds. And the reason is we could see all the data of full day prek, what it does for kindergarten, kindergarten what it does for first grade and onward. Now i have a fundamental view, shared also by our schools, that kids drop out of college in third grade. They do not drop out freshman year. And if theyre not reading and doing math at third grade level in third grade its not like fourth grade is a lot easier. What chicago is now expanding upon is i do not believe that the kindergarten to 12th grade model, its an anachronism from the 20th century. We are going towards a prek to college model. I have told you a couple things that we have done on the earlier side, universal full day kindergarten, a race to the top model for prek, a 60 increase in our education for full day prek, one of the online portals that is now being praised by the United States government for its ability of transparency and appearance to evaluate quality, and we give quality scores on Early Childhood providers. I have and asked with me so youll understand on the other side, which is where i want to get to the high school and posthigh school, because were in a process right now of a major reinvention of our High School Education and what it prepares for. I just finished graduation. I did about five or six different schools across the city of chicago. Crane high school, which is on the west side near our Illinois Medical District where rush Presbyterian Hospital and another, stroger hospital, cooke county hospital which is stroger, 100 College Acceptance. Fenger all the way on the far south side in the rosalind community 100 College Acceptance. Chicago bulls noble charter 100 chicago acceptance. We have with us armando from sarah goode. Its a ptech School Associated with ibm. Ibm, to graduate they have a little over 90 of their students have graduated, seven of their students have graduated already with their Associates Degree in hand, they have won over 4. 4 Million Dollars in scholarships for their students. And we can go on another time. But all of them are going on to postHigh School Education to college. Thats on the far south side. I have also Gregory Jones from kenwood. Kenwood is also on the south side of the city of chicago. Its just north of the university of chicago. 94 of their freshmen are on track to graduate. More than half the students are earning College Credit while they are in high school. He said to me 72 . They earned this year 70, they earned 35 million in scholarships at their school. They have the largest dual credit, dual enrollment in the city of chicago. Now, what we are about and what were trying to do is take our high school graduation, which was at 57 , by the class of 2019 were on track for 87 . Thats a 52 growth rate. Were triple the national average. We have a series of things we are doing to ensure that every child is College Ready and college bound. We live in a period of time where you earn what you learn. You get a High School Degree, thats probably going to be your income. You earn a two year Associates Degree. You earn a college degree. You own a post doctorate degree. We live in a period where you earn what you learn. And the question in front of me as mayor, in front of the principals that are here is what are we doing to better prepare our students for that economy . Over 60 of all future job openings will require a minimum of two years postHigh School Education. We all know this. Its studied ad nauseam, which is a High School Degree is not ready for the 21st century economy, yet every educational model at the urban level, i dont care where you are, is in a 20th century prism of time, k through 12. Were a prek to college model. First and foremost, while youre in high school we have the Largest InternationalBaccalaureate Program in the United States of america, and its a fancy way of saying a liberal arts education. In fact we have more desires now for people to get, have schools become ib in chicago than we can keep up with, because when you take that test you already graduate with College Credit under your belt. Your parents dont have to pay for it and youre better prepared for college. Second, dual credit, dual enrollment. The chicago Community College system in our city, mayoral directed, is the second largest in the United States of america. So we, when i became mayor there was about 400 to 600 students in dual credit, dual enrollment; today were north of 4,000. So kids are already graduating not only in high School Getting a High School Degree, theyre graduating with College Credits under their belt. In fact, at kenwood greg has more students involved in that dual credit and dual enrollment than any other of our high schools, over 110 of them, in the country, so theyre not only graduating with High School Degrees, theyre graduating with College Credit already under their belt. Third, advance placements. We have one of the largest programs, and by data points i think its a 60 increase in people passing that test. So through dual credit, dual enrollment, international baccalaureate, as well as with ap, advanced placement, we are ensuring that the kids of the city of chicago graduate with College Credits already under their belt and unless your parents went to school the College Experience under their belt. And i cant say enough about what that means for kids who with 80some odd percent of our children are not only kids of color but kids who are at or below the Poverty Level. Theyre not only getting College Credit, theyre getting that College Experience so that first kind of six months is already theyre familiar with it and theyre familiar with the rigor of that effort. Today right now in the city of chicago 42 of all our children not only go to college but 42 graduate with College Credit underneath their experience at high school. We have set a goal by 2018 to grow that to 50 . At armandos school, which we have five, four of them rather at that level, theyre not only doing high school, he had seven graduates, as i mentioned, that graduated not only with a High School Degree just last week, seven of them graduated with an Associates Degree already under their belt, done, free. Have i mentioned free yet . Parents dont have to pay for it. In the same way that gregs class, i think its 72 graduating with College Credit free. And if the big challenge, which as we all know is cost for Higher Education, chicago has got a model in which every child, regardless of income, zip code, background can graduate with College Credit under their belt free where cost is not the prohibitive factor. I do not believe parents should pay, take a second job or a second mortgage to give their kids a shot at the american dream, and thats what chicago has embarked on. And then lastly what we have done is, not lastly but an additional that is, what was just andrea talked about, which is if you get a b average in high school were the only city in the United States, we make Community College free. Two years of your education is free. And then we have what is called the chicago star, that program is called the chicago star, the chicago star plus, which is what tony is part of in the first cohort, chicago star plus is if you maintain your b average in Community College, so high school b average Community College free, you maintain the b average in Community College every one of the universities in the city of chicago, northwestern, university of chicago, depaul, loyola, roosevelt, columbia, northeastern, every one of them will give you anywhere from 25 to 45 off of your tuition. Tony went to pierce elementary on the north side, rogers park, went to north side c