Chicago City Wire

Malcolm X Community College, 1900 W. Jackson Boulevard on Chicago’s Near West Side, spent $55.3 million during the 2014-15 school year, graduating 83 students in a graduating class of 2,775, a graduation rate of 3 percent.

That’s based on an analysis of data published by the U.S. Department of Education.

All in all, the school spent $662,340 per graduate in 2014-15, the third most of Chicago’s seven community colleges.

Harold Washington College, 30 E. Lake Street in Chicago’s Loop, and Wilbur Wright College, 4300 N. Narragansett in Chicago’s North Side Dunning neighborhood, spent the most per graduate of Chicago City Colleges, at $993,511 per graduate.

Olive-Harvey Community College, 10001 S. Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago’s South Side Pullman neighborhood, had zero graduates from a class of more than 1,700 in 2014-15. It spent $34.43 million.

Nearly all of this money comes from taxpayers.

Chicago property taxpayers contributed $132 million in subsidies to Chicago City Colleges in 2014-15. Illinois taxpayers outside of Chicago contributed $75 million.

Federal taxpayers contributed at least $145 million in grants and federally subsidized loans.

50,699 students were enrolled in Chicago’s City Colleges in 2014-15; 1,212 of them graduated their two-year program in two years, or two percent. 4,113 graduated their two-year program in three-and-a-half years, or eight percent.

Statewide, Illinois’ 46 community colleges had 311,203 students; 11 percent graduated on time and 24 percent finished their two-year programs in three-and-a-half years.

Malcolm X College has 241 faculty members, or 2.9 faculty members per graduate.

School	Enrollment	Graduation Rate	Annual Budget	Faculty-to-Grad Ratio
Kennedy-King	3,989	18%	$34.4 million	0.62
Daley	8,365	8%	$83.1 million	0.81
Truman	9,467	5%	$94.1 million	1.51
Malcolm X	5,550	3%	$55.3 million	1.44
Harold Washington	9,093	2%	$90.3 million	4.51
Wright	10,770	2%	$107.0 million	3.82
Olive-Harvey	3,465	0%	$34.4 million	N/A; no graduates
TOTALS	50,699	5%	$503.7 million	1.71

*Covers 2014-15 school year; sources: U.S. Department of Education, City Colleges of Chicago; Graduation rates cover normal expected time for graduation.