WBEZ reports on how the children of Gentry Liberals will get the opportunity to experience diversity:
Chicago Public Schools is moving forward with plans to merge two schools on opposite ends of the income divide.Will Gentry Liberals stay in the government school system to show their commitment to diversity?
Top school district officials said Monday they recommend merging Jenner Academy of the Arts in the Cabrini-Green area and Ogden International School of Chicago in the Gold Coast starting in September 2018.
The details of the controversial merger plan will be developed in the coming months and still need to be approved by the Chicago Board of Education.
The idea of combining the two schools, which sit seven blocks away but worlds apart, first popped up during the summer of 2015 and quickly turned into a heated debate about school quality, segregation and economic development on Chicago’s changing Near North Side.
Ogden International is a diverse, affluent public school in the Gold Coast that has struggled with overcrowding, while nearby Jenner Academy in Cabrini-Green has struggled with underenrollment since the city tore down nearby public housing. Nearly all of Jenner’s students are African-American and low-income.
Community members and parents came up with an idea of combining the two schools to solve both problems. Both principals and each school’s local school council voted in favor of the idea, but school district officials had remained silent on the matter — until now.
