Unfinished Business
Not Yet "Free At Last"
[Reprinted from Issues & Views Summer/Fall 1999]
In Mikel Holt's blow-by-blow description of the battle against the education
establishment in Milwaukee, we get to meet the people and learn of the events
that led to the city's pioneering school voucher program. His book, Not Yet
'Free At Last,' exposes the bureaucratic corruption and intense media bias
that often seemed impossible to surmount. Holt refers to the victory over these
forces as a ride on a "new Freedom Train." As a Milwaukee resident
and parent, he was more than just an onlooker. He writes: "The
African-American Freedom Train made an unscheduled stop in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, in 1989. Fortunately for Black America, while in Milwaukee the train
changed conductors and engineers and, at the request of its educationally
starved passengers, switched tracks as well."
In the book's Foreword, Bob Smith, president of Messmer High School writes,
"This book goes beyond the rhetoric and rumors through which opponents and
false prophets have attempted to politicize school choice. . . . While Holt's
story comes from his personal experience and thorough research, it is also a
practical manual that will shout out a critical message for today's and
tomorrow's parents. What began many years ago as Holt's search for a better
education for his own son became a journey that helped change the way that
education is delivered across the United States for low-income people."
Not Yet 'Free At Last'
The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement
Our Battle for School Choice
by Mikel Holt
Institute for Contemporary Studies
1611 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94612
(800) 326-0263; http://www.icspress.com
Copyright 2001 © Issues & Views
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