Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Siege of La Casita (updated)

The Chicago Public Schools want to spend over $300,000 to knock down a field house contiguous to Whittier Dual Language Elementary School.
The local parents want their kids to have a library and a community center, and they're willing to fundraise and volunteer labor in order to get it.
The parents for a number of years been demanding that Mayor Daley use some of the estimated $1 billion in TIF money for education. When this was allocated, CPS decided that of the $1 million they'd allocate for Whittier, a third would go to knocking down the field house, which has been in use as a community center.
Parents have been staging a sit-in at "La Casita," as they've dubbed the space, for over a month now. The City of Chicago has turned off the heat and the water (and yes, it's been as cold in Chicago as it's been in New England lately!), but the parents--largely moms, largely Latino, largely working-class--haven't backed down. Their local alderman is siding with them, and they've been promised a meeting with the CPS CEO Ron Hulberman, 'though so far that hasn't panned out. Update: CPS has offered to build a library in the school.
The website the parents are maintaining is here. You can read more here.
 and here. You can become a fan on Facebook here.
They're taking monetary donations through Paypal and donations of Spanish and Spanish/English books for adults and children, and arts/culture/history of the Americas. Those can be sent to:
Chicago Underground Library
c/o Nell Taylor
PO Box 11444
Chicago, IL 60611-0444

2 comments:

  1. Hey Trace why don't you comment on the stuff the T&G is throwing up today.

    No one gives a toot about Chicago.

    ReplyDelete

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