The holiday season finds Sacramento legislators scrambling for $700 million in Race to the Top money from the federal government. In the midst of the chaos, policy makers, parents and taxpayers should take time to reflect on what California’s six million public school students really need, starting with high expectations.
The holiday season is upon us, but California’s schoolchildren won’t be receiving many gifts this year—at least not from their lawmakers or teachers’ unions.
In 2007, the Pacific Research Institute published the book Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice. This update finds hundreds more "middle-class" schools where students fail to reach the proficiency mark.
