The Tribune Editorial Board continues endorsements in contested races for aldermanic seats in Chicago’s Feb. 26 municipal election.
12th Ward: When a Tribune reporter asked Ald. George Cardenas his reaction to news that his pal Ald. Danny Solis had recorded City Hall conversations, Cardenas might have applauded federal efforts to quash the council’s culture of corruption. Instead, Cardenas said: “Geez. I mean, what is the world coming to? … It’s pretty upsetting … I feel disappointed.” Which is how many of Cardenas’ constituents in this Near Southwest Side ward feel about their hard-to-reach alderman, a leftover from the patronage-peddling, now-defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization. Remember the Tribune’s disclosure that Cardenas had put his father on the payroll and rented his ward office in a building he and his relatives owned? We hope voters instead elect Jose Rico, a senior vice president at United Way of Metro Chicago. As a teacher at Latino Youth Alternative High School, he focused on gangbangers others had written off; as the father of a child with cerebral palsy, he worked to improve school building accessibility. He also served on an Obama White House panel to improve Latino high school graduation rates nationwide. Rico abhors the human cost of Chicago’s gun violence, but also appreciates how it cuts home values, entrenches housing segregation, drives people out of the city, and consumes public resources better spent on education, behavioral health and job creation. Rico is endorsed.
Name: José Rico DOB: March 19, 1970 Family: Father to three wonderful children Occupation: SVP Community Impact at United Way Political Experience: For over 25 years, I’ve worked with schools, community-based organizations, and civic groups in defending our families, and providing services to improve their lives. As an undocumented student leader, I led the take-over at the University of Illinois in 1991 to protest racist policies and established the first Latina/o Studies program in Illinois. When I returned to Little Village, I became a teacher at Latino Youth Alternative High School. There I taught young people labeled dropouts, gang bangers, and unteachables, and was able to demonstrate to them that they are loved and have value. My students transformed me!
In 1997, I was compelled to organize against racist policies in the suburbs as a result of IIRaIRA (The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996). Students were not being allowed to enroll in Cicero due to their immigration status and motorists were being extorted by police officers in Arlington Heights for the same reason. I was the suburban organizer for ICIRR and collected enough testimonies from people to file and eventually get a consent decrees between the Department of Justice and the townships.
But, my most life-changing experience was when my oldest son, Tizoc, was born with Cerebral Palsy. This required him to attend a wheelchair accessible school. After attempting to work with CPS for years around the building of a new school, Tizoc’s mom led a Hunger Strike with 18 other community residents. After a long campaign, the hunger strikers won a $70M school. I supported the campaign by engaging hundreds of residents in the planning process for the school. I was then selected to be the founding principal of the Multicultural Arts school, and implemented a culturally integrated curriculum; We were successful in exceeding graduation rates for students in neighborhood schools and have a teacher-led school. I was then appointed by President Obama to serve in the Department of Education to increase the high school graduation rate for Latino students nationally. After I helped allocate an unprecedented amount of resources to students, schools and education organizations, the high school graduation rate and college enrollment rate for Latino students increased significantly.
Since my return home, I’ve worked in my community as a non profit leader creating collaborative partnerships and funding that have increased mental health services, jobs, afterschool programs, parent leaderships programs and violence prevention resources to thousands of families in Little Village, Brighton Park, McKinley Park.
Candidate Statement
I’m José Rico, an immigrant, educator and father. I’m running for 12th ward Alderman in Little Village, Brighton Park and McKinley Park.
I’m running to stem violence, improve city services for families, to create jobs in neighborhoods and to unite our neighbors so that our children can afford to live here for generations and have a place to call home.
Today’s shameless policies promote racism and segregation against Black and Brown Chicagoans instead of providing pathways to opportunity. Radical change in public investment is necessary to address the racial inequities embedded in our city.
February is our chance to elect a brand new council where policies, resources, rights, and opportunities are understood, embraced, and applied equitably, justly, and transparently.
We need to elect officials willing to address the most important issues facing our neighbors, with our neighbors, across the street and across the city.
Our city’s budget should be created on values that provide every student a quality education they deserve, jobs with dignity and vibrant neighborhoods that families can call home.
Let’s create jobs and Neighborhood Economic Development.
Let’s fund schools every student deserve.
Let’s create Health and Human services networks in our neighborhoods.
Let’s stop the exodus and make living in the city affordable.
Let’s enforce Environmental protections- Protect the air, water and ground we live in.
And let’s stop balancing the budget on the backs of working people and require more from corporate community.
Let’s empower local organizations to tackle neighborhood problems across the ward.
Let’s bring change to City Council. Let’s do this together.
In this episode, we speak with Jose Rico, Senior Vice President of Community Impact at the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. Jose leads the organization’s community impact work in education, income, health and basic needs support. He also stewards its Neighborhood Network model of delivering highly coordinated and concentrated services in underserved communities.
Prior to the United Way, Jose served as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics where he planned policy, strategic initiatives, outreach, and communications for President Obama’s education agenda in the Latino community.
We learn about:
The UWMCs approach to investing in non-profits and communities
Jose’s perspective on Latino leadership
Opportunities for philanthropy to build coalition
Importance of finding passion and mastering your craft
By Isa Adney via Fox News | When José Rico emigrated from Mexico to Chicago with his family when he was seven years old, he never would have dreamed he would one day be appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as an Executive Director for an initiative focused on an incredibly important issue for Latinos and all Americans—education.
Hours before Chicago’s school board approved a budget that generally cuts money at Hispanic and black-majority schools significantly more than at white schools, Chicago Public Schools’ Latino Advisory Committee lodged its anger with mass resignations.
