Many government and private employers honor and respect military veterans with preferential treatment in securing a job. If several applicants have the required skills, experience and education, the nod goes to the vet. After all, the reasoning goes, vets have sacrificed some of the best years of their youth at low pay and poor working conditions, perhaps in dangerous combat situations, to protect the freedoms of our nation and they deserve our real thanks.

The increasingly desperate 99% Democratic government of the city of Chicago is now twisting this reasonable program for military veterans to other veterans of a sort--graduates of the Chicago Public Schools. Yep, graduate from the increasingly violent city schools (to be fair, not a fault of the city's unfairly maligned public educators, who, on the whole, do a valiant job with a difficult population or even the fault of the city's justly maligned government) and somewhat voila! a city job might be yours.

Under a new iniatiative (sic) announced Saturday by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office, the Department of Human Resources will make sure CPS graduates are among at least 20 percent of job applicants they refer to city department managers.

But, the department managers must first specify that they want the CPS graduate preference applied to their pool of applicants, said city spokeswoman Caroline Weisser.

And, the program does not guarantee the grads will get the job, Weisser said.

"But it provides them a leg up in that process," she said.

Emanuel's office touted the program as a way to discourage CPS students from dropping out of school.

The CPS graduation rate has been on the rise in recent years, peaking last year at 60.6 percent.

"From cradle to career ... we are committed to helping our students succeed every step of the way," Emanuel said in a press release. (snip)

CPS head Jean-Claude Brizard lauded the city initiative in a press release.

"We are encouraged by this step taken by the city to encourage our students to strive each day and work towards their diploma," Brizard said in the release.

Emanuel (D) graduated from public school--in an affluent suburb with a highly rated, highly competitive (often criticized as too competitive) school system. His predecessor, Richard M. Daley (D), attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through law school; his children also spent their entire academic careers in Catholic schools--although one son attended a private, secular university for graduate school. The Haitian born Chicago Public School Superintendent, Brizard, graduated from New York City's public schools and colleges.

When Emanuel served in Congress and later the White House his children attended private Jewish schools, they are now enrolled at the private University of Chicago Lab School, former educational home of President Barack Obama's (D) daughters who now attend a pricey private Quaker school outside of the city of Washington DC. Former Chicago Public School Superintendent and now US government Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan (D), is another Lab school graduate.

Chicago, like other American cities, has been diverse and multi cultural long before these became liberal chic guidelines for racial and ethnic preferences. Alongside the public schools which educated immigrant children, private schools also sprung up which served the religious and cultural preferences of the increasingly pluralistic city. Many of the present city workers graduated from these private schools, many of them sacrifice mightily to pay the tuition for their children to also attend while paying taxes to support a public school system. Most of the parents of the students in the city public schools receive various forms of government aid, therefore they do not financially contribute to the system. In effect, this new policy is another swipe at hard working, responsible parents and students.

" 'From cradle to career... we are committed to helping our students succeed every step of the way,' Emanuel said..." Uh, isn't that the job of the family, especially those cradle and early post cradle years? But Emanuel can't offer the latter advice to the many Chicago public school parents who alas are not that committed and/or are woefully inadequate and unprepared for this basic parenting task--a real reason the city's students perform so poorly.

Bribery is a way of life in Chicago--this is just another bribe dressed up as good government, good education. And it is another way for Emanuel and the Democratic machine to obtain and retain voters. "Free" stuff, "free" jobs, "free Obama" cell phones. It is the Chicago Way.