Author Event at Griffin Bay Books

Lessons From The Heartland
A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City
by Barbara J. Miner

If you have concerns about the future of public education in America, don’t miss this special opportunity to hear from Barbara Miner at Griffin Bay Bookstore on Saturday evening, May 4, 7:00 pm. A long-time journalist and editor of numerous books on education, Barbara Miner is on a nation-wide tour to talk about her recently published book, Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City.

From labor politics to civil rights, Wisconsin has long been the epicenter of the struggle for American progress, a swing state with working-class values where the fate of the middle class hangs in balance. In Lessons from the Heartland renowned writer and journalist Barbara Miner reveals the crucial turning point now developing in America’s heartland: the future of public education and its impact on our multicultural society.

This is narrative nonfiction at its best, and Miner lays out the racially fraught past and uncertain future of public education in Milwaukee. She has the keen eye of a journalist and the affection of a local. She describes her hometown’s fall from grace: Milwaukee is now the most segregated metropolis in the country and home to the highest levels of black joblessness in the nation—a shocking fifty-five percent. Miner explores the pernicious effects of the city’s hyper-segregation on public schooling and—from “school choice” to vouchers and charter schools—details the experiments in policy-making that have come along the way.

Lessons from the Heartland is both a portrait of an all-American city in crisis and the opportunities for its redemption, and a far-reaching book about the issues of race and class in America.

About the Author
Barbara J. Miner has been a reporter, writer, and editor for almost forty years, writing for publications ranging from the New York Times to the Milwaukee Journal. The former managing editor of Rethinking Schools, she has co-edited numerous books on education, including Rethinking Columbus. Miner (whose daughters attended public schools in the city) lives in Milwaukee.

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