WHAT PRICE JUSTICE?

A TRUE STORY THE EDUCATION SYSTEM DID NOT WANT TOLD

"Out of many years of sweat and struggle to sustain a Free School in the hostile atmosphere of Santa Fe, Ed Nagel has composed a beautiful book that will not leave America unchanged. ...the kids, the classes, the books they read, the crazy, delightful, unexpected things they said, the legal appeals, the letters to beg cash or sanity (or both) from those who always had the first but seldom gave much evidence of the second...
It is all here in a single, carefully documented book--one that moves fast, strikes deep, hits hard, and cannot help but bring a rational reader, first to the point of joy, and then tears.

National Book Award Winner, Jonathan Kozol
From The Preface, Cheez! Uncle Sam

"I personally don't believe any more in schools for children, even "free" schools. To people who hate what school is doing to their children, I say, "never mind trying to change the school, or start a new one; just take the kids out altogether." I have never seen and could not have imagined a stronger argument for this position than this book. ...the main point is that this book is the story of a long, brave and resourceful struggle against an indifferent and often corrupt government which all of us who care about children may have to wage one day, in one form or another."

--John Holt, Author on Children's Education

CHEEZ! reveals a remarkable approach to education that works, and it works for
              children outside traditional classroom settings, under the direct
              control of its participants.
CHEEZ! reveals the existence and struggle of a school, organized and operated
              by a community of low-income families, who had succeeded over a decade 
              in providing a rich educational environment individualized for each
              child at less than half the cost of public school programs.
CHEEZ! reveals the system's destructive use of unnecessary, unreasonable and
           illegal obstacles to undermine the survival and development of 
              viable educational alternatives outside its domain.
CHEEZ! reveals characters and events that make the story a "Peyton Place" of
              education politics in Santa Fe, and a microcosm of government interference
              on a national scale.
CHEEZ! reveals a philosophical, social and legal war between the powers that be
              and the people who oppose them, in this case successfully.  
CHEEZ! is the story of a mouse that roared.