Free City!

The Fight for San Francisco's City College and Education for All

Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger, Vicki Legion, Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger, Vicki Legion

• Publisher: PM Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781629638294
• eBook ISBN:
  9781629638454
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Adult Education
• Index: History

Free City! The Fight for San Francisco's City College and Education for All tells the story of the five years of organizing that turned a seemingly hopeless defensive fight into a victory for the most progressive free college measure in the US. In 2012, the accreditor sanctioned City College of San Francisco, one of the biggest and best community colleges in the country, and a year later proposed terminating its accreditation, leading to a state takeover. Free City! follows the multipronged strategies of the campaign and the diverse characters that carried them out. Teachers, students, labor unions, community groups, public officials, and concerned individuals saved a treasured public institution as San Francisco's working-class communities of color battled the gentrification that was forcing them out of the city. And they pushed back against the national "reform" agenda of corporate workforce training that drives students towards debt and sidelines lifelong learning and community service programs. Combining analysis with narrative, Free City! offers a case study in the power of positive vision and solution-oriented organizing and a reflection on what education can and should be.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword. Pauline Lipman
• Prologue. They Love It Enough to Fight for It
• Chapter One. San Francisco’s Community College: Before 2012
• Chapter Two. The Sword Drops: July 2012
• Chapter Three. Makeover: Crisis Is the New Normal: Summer–Fall 2012
• Chapter Four. San Francisco Steps Up: Fall 2012
• Chapter Five. From Scared to Mad: Fall 2012–Spring 2013
• Chapter Six. The Light at the End of the Tunnel Is an Oncoming Train: Spring 2013
• Chapter Seven. Takeover: July 2013
• Chapter Eight. All the Work Matters: Resistance Gets First Traction: Summer 2013
• Chapter Nine. Takeover Speeds Makeover, Resistance Builds: Fall 2013
• Chapter Ten. Whose School? Whose City?: Winter–Spring 2014
• Chapter Eleven. They Can’t Stop. We Won’t Stop.: 2014
• Chapter Twelve. ACCJC on Trial: October 2014
• Chapter Thirteen. Central City Rising: Winter–Spring 2015
• Chapter Fourteen. How Can We Keep Winning and Still Be Losing?: 2015
• Chapter Fifteen. Strike for the School Our City Deserves: Spring 2016
• Chapter Sixteen. Back to the Land: 2016
• Chapter Seventeen. Free City Flips the Script: 2016
• Chapter Eighteen. A Chance to Rebuild: January–February 2017
• Epilogue. One Struggle Sets the Table for the Next: Fall 2019
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• Acronym Key
• Interviews
• Resources
• Appendices
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors