Welcome to Commie High

Welcome to Commie High explores an experiment in public education—Community High School. The film follows its humanistic, anti-establishment origins in the early 70s through its survival into the 90s, when enrollment demands for this alternative, small school led to a wild craze of lines, camp outs and convoluted lottery systems. Today Community High stands as one of the last public schools from America’s “free school” movement. Filmed over the 2016 – 2017 school year, we see how the “Commie High” model has evolved to reflect the world around it and shows us what’s possible within public education when “no” is not the standard answer.