Chicago IL: Why More Controversy Over Little Village High School? Politics and Poor Communication

Talk about pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.

Little Village High School, the seemingly-successful result of effective community organizing and influence, is now encountering some belated controversy, with hunger strike moms crying at press conferences.

Both politics and the Board are to blame.
READ MORE>>

The resurgence of controversy is not entirely unexpected. Two and a half years ago the concluding lines of my feature article for Catalyst magazine warned that the process of developing LVHS could easily get ugly again.

Now it has -- at least momentarily. At issue is the not-so-new reality that LVHS is not large enough to hold as many area kids who will want to attend, and that the attendance zones drawn up by the Board exclude part of the community in order to create racial balance.

Why is it coming up now? Election-year political grandstanding is certainly a part of this. But it also seems like the Board and others might not have done enough outreach about the attendance zones and size limitations of the new schools. Otherwise, you wouldn't have hunger strike moms crying at press conferences.

Things To Read: Parents feeling betrayed (Tribune), 4 who fasted for high school can't send kids (Sun Times), Community organizing pays off (Catalyst, ), Not your father’s Farragut (Catalyst).