Free City! Reclaiming City College of San Francisco and Free Education for All

Abstract

Public education is a main target of the assault on the public sector; recently corporate education reformers have expanded their agenda to include the open-access community colleges, which enroll 40 percent of U.S. college students. City College of San Francisco was threatened with closure for resisting this policy agenda. The faculty union, students, and community groups led by people of color waged and won a five-year battle to save it. Although not unscathed, today the college is open, accredited, and free. In the continuing war on working-class community institutions, this struggle offers valuable lessons for coalitions of labor and social movements.