New public schools to be planned gay & union

I'm certain a lot of people will sound off on this. CPR:

A new high school geared for gay students in Chicago has cleared an important hurdle. It’s one of 18 new schools proposed by the district Wednesday.

Experts say gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens are more likely to abuse drugs, drop out of school and commit suicide.

Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan on Wednesday announced he’s backing a plan to provide them a safer environment in a new school.

DUNCAN: We’re looking to create great new options in neighborhoods around the city. The more we empower students and parents to pick the school that best suits them, the better they’re going to do.

I'm not going to get into a discussion here about what I think of homosexuality. The focus here is whether or not there be a school created especially for homosexuals. Should they be segregated from other students?

Well believe it or not there are those who think this might not be a good idea. Let's take Gregory Tejada:

Creating separate high schools actually supports the notion that such people ought to be separated from the general population.
...
But if Chicago Public Schools officials are preparing to enforce such a standard at one high school, why not consider implementing such an attitude at all the schools? If anything, that would make more sense.

The simple fact is that “gay” people are everywhere in our society, and it ought to be a priority to knock down the prejudices that some might feel toward them. Also, those “gay” students are going to be expected as adults to merge into the society as a whole.

Believe it or not there are some gay rights advocates who oppose this "gay" high school. In some of the stories I have been able to gather, I can't find any direct quotes so here's something from the Trib...

At a recent public hearing on the proposal, some gay rights advocates have said the move would segregate these students and said the district should work more on fostering acceptance by mainstream students, teachers and other school officials.

BTW, there will be a union high school in the works as well:

Next fall Chicago could have its first high school formed by labor unions. The project is among 18 new schools the district is recommending for Board of Education approval this month.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union Local 73 have formed a nonprofit group to run the school. They’ve agreed to locate the school in West Garfield Park, a mostly African American neighborhood. Carlene Lutz works for the teachers union.

LUTZ: There’ve been teacher-designed schools. That’s what almost everyone one of the charters are. The uniqueness is that unions have been involved in the design of this school.

Of course these two schools are amongst 15 proposed new schools under Renaisance 2010. It's great to see an expansion but if the student aren't doing very well as far as their standardized tests shouldn't some money be spend to improve academic performance?