Break
These Chains: The Battle for School Choice
by Daniel McGroarty, William
J. Bennett
Reviews
Amazon.com
Nothing scares teacher unions like the word
"voucher." McGroarty slips behind all the theorizing that has gone on in
the name of school choice. He looks at what actually happened when Milwaukee
decided to allow public dollars to finance the private education of some
of its poorest students. McGroarty does not ignore the enormous political
implications of Milwaukee's success, but his book is most noteworthy for
its detailed reporting and the humane treatment of its subjects.
From Booklist, April 15, 1996
If school choice raises your blood pressure,
McGroarty's presentation of Wisconsin's choice experiment may be the read
of the year. In the Wisconsin scheme, minority students from the poorest
sections of Milwaukee use money from the state to attend selected private
schools in their neighborhoods rather than city public schools. Now in
its fifth year, the program has been under constant legal fire from the
state education department that is supposed to defend it, from the two
teachers' unions, from "citizen" organizations actually populated by school
and union officials, and from activist groups, including the ACLU, the
NAACP, and People for the American Way. Keeping it alive have been the
black welfare mom turned state legislator who pushed through its authorizing
legislation, a black newspaper editor who considers its opponents guilty
of liberal racism, the principals of the heavily minority small private
schools involved, libertarian public interest attorneys, a sympathetic
governor, and the participating kids' parents, who give it 98 percent approval.
A real David-and-Goliath story.
Book Description
This is the story of inner-city parents
who turned to the controversial school choice initiative for help. A heart-wrenching
account of what happens when caring but low-income parents fight institutionalized
poverty, this is also a stunning illustration of how school choice can
revolutionize education in America.
Customer Comments
A reader from Dover, DE,
March 11, 1999
Inspiring story of grass roots citizen's
victory
The flyleaf of the book features the following
quote by Polly Williams: "We've got to break these chains before the system
turns our children into slaves." If you haven't heard of her, Polly Williams
is the African American mother and state legislator in Milwaukee that took
on the failing urban public school system and has succeeded in improving
the lives of her children, constituents, and maybe all of America. The
school district in Milwaukee mandated where kids were allowed to go to
school, and many were forced to be bused across town. Many parents applied,
appealed, and reapplied to stay in their own neighborhoods, but were refused.
Schools in their neighborhoods were poor, but bussing provided no advantage.
"They sold us desegregation as a panacea, a placebo," Mikel Holt, the editor
of the local newspaper declared. "For fifteen years we've been on a bus
ride to nowhere." Daniel McGroarty describes just how bad the situation
was - one student secretly took a hidden video camera into the urban school
and recorded teachers reading magazines during class, students throwing
spit wads, playing dice games and bragging about flunking, among other
problems. But he also tells what can be done. Polly Williams wanted her
children to attend the private school near to her home, and saw no reason
that she shouldn't be able to somehow, even though she could not afford
tuition. She formed a parents group, got articles published in the newspaper,
began lobbying the legislature, and before she knew it she was arguing
before the State legislature as an elected member of that body. She had
to battle entrenched groups, supposedly advocates for the disadvantaged,
who did everything they could to stop her from succeeding, for their own
self-serving reasons. But she managed to join with conservatives and business
people who wanted to see her improve education in Milwaukee, and got a
limited voucher program started her district. The program started out with
a proposal for 3,000 students to attend private schools. I read recently
that it has now been expanded for 15,000 students. Scores are up, parents
are much happier, and the Milwaukee program promises to be a successful
model for choice programs all over the country. If this program can bring
substantial improvements, in spite of its limited nature and many restrictions
placed on it by the establishment, then there's real hope for solving education
problems and lifting people out of poverty. It cannot be done by continually
trying the same old reforms in the same old system though, like Grey Davis
is trying to do in California. Citizens have to take hold, start having
parent's meetings in their basements, and start pressuring legislators.
Daniel MacGroarty tells us how Polly Williams and her friends did exactly
that. I also recommend "School Choice: Why you Need It, How You Get
It", by David Harmer, the author and promoter of Prop 174, the School
Choice Initiative in California.
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