Hostages to Leviathan

"How much longer will African-Americans and poor students remain guinea pigs while we tinker and toy with reforming the public schools?"

That was the question posed last Friday by Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of New Jersey's Black Ministers Council.

The answer should of course be "not another minute," but the BMC and Rev. Jackson are up against an unusually tough crowd in New Jersey. Consider this little tidbit from chapter 8 of my book Market Education (search by title).

In late October of 1995, officials of the Pepsi company announced at Jersey City Hall that their corporation would donate thousands of dollars in scholarships to help low-income children attend the private school of their choice. The immediate response of the local public school teachers’ union was to threaten that a statewide boycott of all Pepsi products could not be ruled out. Pepsi vending machines around the city were vandalized and jammed. Three weeks later, company officials regretfully withdrew their offer.