Customer Reviews

Miracle in East Harlem: The Fight for Choice in Public Education

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As one of the leaders of the public school choice movement in East Harlem, Fliegel gives us a passionate and optimistic first-hand account of the district's struggles to create and sustain their proto-charter schools. He uses his experience in East Harlem to illustrate the advantages of decentralized authority and school choice, giving particular emphasis to how these reforms empowered teachers and principals--an under-discussed advantage of choice. He also convincingly rebuts many common concerns about choice, especially fears about equity and resegregation. Because so many of the East Harlem alternative schools targeted special education students, students from broken homes, and other difficult-to-educate students, Fliegel's story provides a devastating counterargument to the concern that choice schools will cream off the best students and leave the rest behind.