CHICAGO – The only viable black candidate in the race for the next mayor of Chicago, a self-made entrepreneur, recently signaled he’s open to the idea of private school vouchers as a means of improving education for the city’s low-income minority students.

Willie Wilson, a Louisiana sharecropper who has built a multi-million dollar business empire in Chicago since moving to the city in the 1965, recently appeared on “Public Affairs TV with Jeff Berkowitz” to discuss education in the Windy City, among other topics.

During the 28-minute segment, Berkowitz laid out the argument for private school vouchers and explained how empowering parents to steer their children’s education would drive competition with public schools and increase student outcomes.

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“I want competition,” Berkowitz said, pointed out the fact that embracing private school vouchers would differentiate Wilson from the race’s frontrunners – incumbent Rahm Emanuel, and labor hopeful Chuy Garcia.

“Would you try that experiment?” Berkowitz asked. “Would you give that choice to every parent in Chicago Public Schools?”

“I’d say … let’s have a town hall meeting for the next six months to a year and let’s make the decision together,” Wilson responded.

Berkowitz pressed on.

“Can’t individuals decide, Willie?”

“You can have that town meeting … but what if out of those 400,000 (students who attend Chicago Public Schools), maybe 80,000 want to go to the private schools and the 320,000 want to stay in public schools.

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“Can we let those 80,000 kids and their parents be empowered to make the choice of what’s best for them?” he asked again.

“You know what, I’m in agreement with you on that,” Wilson said.

“Once you’ve had the meeting and once you’ve had the information, let the individual parent with their child make the decision,” Berkowitz clarified.

“Let them do it …” Wilson said, adding that it would be important to help “disfranchised” students and parents make that decision.

Berkowitz, a local political blogger and producer, elaborated on why he believes Wilson’s openness to vouchers could be a game-changer for the Feb. 24 election.

Berkowitz believes the race boils down to Emanuel, Garcia, and Wilson because they’re the only three candidates with a wide base of support. Wilson was endorsed by a coalition of 100 pastors from Chicago’s West and South Side in January.

According to ChicagoNow.com, Berkowitz’s blog:

Rahm, in my view, is the odd’s on favorite to repeat in two weeks. He has raised and spent almost 12 million dollars getting there. Chuy Garcia, who has Hispanic support and teacher union support is probably at 25%. Rahm is at 54% and Willie Wilson, who has put about 2 million dollars into his campaign is gaining in the African-American community and may be at 14%. To force a run-off between the Mayor and himself, Wilson would have to drain 8% of the vote from the Mayor and maybe 4% from Garcia, and most of those votes would be African-American, giving the following final tally on February 24, election day in Chicago:

Rahm – 46%

Wilson- 26%

Garcia- 21%

Fioretti- 6%

Walls –    1%

But what would Wilson have to do to pull 12% of the vote, mostly black, from Rahm and Garcia. Wilson would have to spend a total of 4 million dollars on ads, persuading those blacks he could deliver on programs and concepts to empower blacks with more jobs and better education for their kids– something like school choice-school vouchers, that really empowers low income blacks and Hispanics.

Chuy is clearly not willing to endorse such a program, nor is Rahm.