by Jacqueline Baylón
Workers protest against Rite Aids Drugstors to highlight what they call employer abuse and need for Congress to pass The Employer Free Choice Act.(photo by Marvin Ramirez)
A community in East Los Angeles will welcome its first new high school in nearly a century this year.
The real celebration, however, is that the Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to name itin honor of pioneer Mexican-American civil rights leaders Felicitas and Gonzalo Méndez.
The Méndez family fought against prejudice and segregation back in 1943, when their children were denied entry into the allwhite17th Street School in Westminster Calif, because of their “race.”
Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County was the 1947 decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that ended the practice of sending Latino children to “all Mexican” schools in California.
The suit was filed by Gonzalo Méndez and four other parents on behalf of the 5,000 Latino children who attended schools in the district.
It was a precursor to court cases including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in Kansas, which ended school segregation for all children nationwide The U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 17,1954, on that suit, filed three years earlier on behalf of 20 black elementary school students.
Residents of the Los Angeles school district said naming the campus after pioneer advocates who fought for their community is symbolic to the students and this pride will help increase graduation rates.
The Felicitas and Gonzalo Méndez Learning Center will open in Boyle Heights next fall.
It will feature two small learning communities with 3B classrooms and 1,025 seats, providing relief from overcrowding at Roosevelt High School.
IN OTHER RELATED EDUCATION NEWS –
Economic Necessity Driving Latinos to Community Colleges
By Edwin Mora
As the national economic turmoil expands, more Latinos are flocking to two-year institutions “Latinos will continue to over-concentrate in community colleges so long the economic crisis continues on,” says Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. According to HACU, 46 percent of Latino college students attend two-year institutions. This contrasts to 37 percent of all college students.
“We estimate that enrollments at community colleges has risen approximately eight to ten percent for fall ‘08,” says Norma Kent, vice president of communications for the American Association of Community Colleges. “We’ve had increases reported from one percent to almost 20 percent.”
Cost of tuition in comparison to four-year institutions, according to Kent, is one of the main reasons for the increase.
