Between public schools, parochial schools, private
schools, charter schools, choice schools, and online learning, today’s students
in the city of Milwaukee have more choices in education than any other city in
America. This amount of choice evolves from Milwaukee’s struggle to desegregate
schools in the 1970s. Most are familiar with the ruling of Brown vs. the Board
of Education which ended de jure segregation or segregation by law, and
thoughts of desegregation tend to conjure up images of the Little Rock Nine as
a group of nine African American students walk into their newly desegregated
high school for the first time amid protest.
But what happens when segregation isn't the law, but neighborhood lines and housing patterns make it that way? Nelson traces the root of Milwaukee's segregation problems (including neighborhood segregation today) to discriminatory housing practices of the early 1900s which limited regions in which African Americans could purchase property. This caused clear racial lines in the city, which in turn made the neighborhood school segregated. Educating Milwaukee traces the evolution of programs in Milwaukee Public Schools, which were aimed at desegregation, from magnet schools, busing finally developing into the schools Milwaukee has today. This book provides wonderful background into many issues that plague and politicize our schools today and can appeal to the local history buff in us all.
