Daley Says, "Welcome Aboard"

With a $2.1 billion million grant, Mayor Daley announced yesterday that Chicago will open its first naval academy high school in 2005. One of only 3 such schools in the country (the others are in St. Louis and Detroit), the naval academy will be on the North Side and will operate in partnership with the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. It is part of the Chicago Public Schools' Renaissance 2010 initiative which calls for 100 new public schools in the next 6 years.

With 10,000 cadets enrolled, Chicago already has the largest Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program in the country. Most of these cadets are in regular schools, although Chicago does have 3 Army military academies as well as 6 Army and 2 Navy JROTC academies that operate within larger high schools.