Daley Slams Chico For Education Comments

CHICAGO (CBS) - Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico hit a nerve with this week with man he hopes to succeed.

Chico said this week that Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration lost momentum on education reform.

He made the comments as he promised to put a laptop computer into the hands of every Chicago Public Schools student, saying the school needs to "enter the modern age."

Chico also said central office functions need to be rebuilt from the ground up, and called for eliminating more than a third of existing personnel.

LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Craig Dellimore Reports

He said a new emphasis was needed on finding the best teachers, funding the arts, foreign languages and athletics, adding charter schools, and even giving vouchers to the parents of the worst-performing schools.

Mayor Daley was not pleased about Chico's criticism of his school reform efforts. On Thursday, the mayor fired back passionately.

"He was president of the Board of Education. He was president of the City Colleges. He never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, mentioned that to me," Daley said at an unrelated event at Richard J. Daley College downtown.

The mayor went on to say that during a campaign people say a lot of things just to try to advance their own agendas.