Praise
“The fight to save City College is one of the most remarkable in the long history of progressive politics in San Francisco. It offers hope and practical lessons in opposing the neoliberal agendas of austerity, exclusion, and privatization. For decades, California bled dry the greatest public education system in the world. Turning that around will take years of struggle by the people demanding their lost rights and public investment in their children. As City College showed, victory is possible and the battle will be led by the new working majority of color, who have already turned California blue and may yet save us from the depredations of the billionaires and madmen who rule America today.”
—Richard Walker, author of Pictures of a Gone City, The Conquest of Bread, The Country in the City, and The Atlas of California
“The struggle and success of Free City proves that when people organize, persist, and resist injustice, they win!”
—Diane Ravitch, founder and president, Network for Public Education; author of The Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools
“The struggle to keep open City College of San Francisco, the largest community college in the nation, was one of perseverance, collaboration, and ultimately a commitment by the faculty and staff of the college and people of San Francisco to fight for a remarkable institution. Authors Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger, and Vicki Legion have made an important contribution to understanding the scope of this five-year battle. At its core the fight to keep open the college revealed a much larger narrative at play in American public education: shaping our schools to meet the needs of the marketplace and its advocates or molding schools to meet the needs of students, working people, seniors and veterans. Ultimately, this struggle highlights the strength of combining a broad community of faculty, the people of the city and unions. It should serve as a template for other battles.”
—Josh Pechtalt, president emeritus of the California Federation of Teachers
“Free City! is a true organizer’s tale. This exciting and deeply researched book describes the twists and turns of a five-year struggle that began as a defensive fight to preserve a hallowed San Francisco institution, City College, and evolved into a stunning victory that achieved tuition free education for the City’s residents. There are heroes like Alisa Messer, the brilliant leader of AFT Local 2121 representing faculty. There are villains like Barbara Beno, the corporate ‘educator’ who launched a withering attack on CCSF’s accreditation. It is a book with a happy ending and lots of lessons for organizers, educators and anybody who cares about public education in America.”
—Peter B. Olney, retired Organizing Director, International Longshore and Warehouse Union
