ABSTRACT
Banging and stomping their feet, students from Houston's Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) school were seated in a mock classroom on stage at the 2000 Republican national convention chanting multiplication ta bles and rapped, "Read, baby, read."1 The trademark chant of the KIPP schools echoed through the convention hall, "Knowledge is power, power is freedom, and I want it."2 This was the same KIPP school applauded by the Manhattan Institute's Chester E. Finn, Jr., and whose effort to fran chise received support from the owners of Gap Jeans. Used to highlight George W. Bush's educational platform, the KIPP school represented the Republican dream of privatization of education and parental choice.
