Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/658240
48 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 2, 2016 (April/May) fter decades of "white flight," the public school system in Cleveland, Ohio was in trouble. Cleveland was one of many urban settings in the United States where Caucasians moved away as African Americans moved in. Racial and cultural divisions remain a challenge in many American cities, with some experts point- ing to current evidence that the phenomenon never ended. Desegregation lawsuits and judgments against the Cleveland Board of Education starting in the 1970s continued through the next two decades and deepened the educa- tion crisis there. By the 1990s, a federal district court judge ordered the state to take over the school district. A few more years of legal maneuvering and court rulings shifted control of the schools to the mayor of Cleveland. While that turn of events may have ended more than two decades of civil rights law suits, it did little to improve success rates of students. About half the students who enrolled in high school in the mid to late 1990s did not graduate. Common core standards, merit-based pay for teachers, and funneling public funds into charter schools emerged as potential solutions to the broader public education crisis playing out across the United States. The recent political history of public education in Cleveland is important context for how it is that high school students opened a coffeehouse inside their school. Three schools in one The choice to demolish the school building that once stood on the site that is now home to John Marshall Campus was a difficult one. In the end, the Landmarks Com- mission agreed to allow it to be torn down to save the taxpayers money in creating a new and more modern space for high school students. Schoolhouse Coffee in Cleveland By Jenny Neill A John Marshall Campus, home of the School of Civic and Business Leadership in Cleveland, Ohio. Rising Star Coffee Roasters, a regional roaster in midwestern US, helps inner city school to open in-school coffeehouses. Students learn about running a small business by operating Lawyer's Café.