Pacific Research Institute (San Francisco)

Publication Date: June/2009

DVD
UPC: 978-1-934276-14-3
Price: $ 19.95

Not as Good as You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School shatters the myth that “good” schools are found in “nice” neighborhoods. Using available data on school performance and interviews with parents, students, principals, and school reformers, Not as Good as You Think confirms every parent’s silent fear: that their financial sacrifice and investment in an expensive home in a “good” school district is not yielding the achievement results needed to get their kids into good colleges and good jobs.

The film takes audiences on a tour of America's best neighborhoods—from posh Orange County, California to the hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, to the lush green hills of Tennessee — to reveal that schools in America’s middle class and affluent neighborhoods are not adequately preparing kids for higher education, or worse, operating under widespread corruption. The film also contrasts the American public school system with that of Sweden’s, a socially progressive country that allows parents, at the government expense, to choose any school that fits their children’s need—private or public—no matter the parents’ income.

• Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School
• Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice