Heritage Foundation, October 15, 2007

Much of the attention in the education reform debate focuses on the need to improve opportunities for disadvantaged children. But a new book offers a wake-up call to suburban parents: their schools aren’t as good as they think. In Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, Pacific Research Institute Scholars Lance Izumi and Vicki Murray explore the state of education in the suburbs. Evaluations of test scores reveal that many suburban students are failing and few students are college ready.

Izumi and Murray highlight chronic problems in “middle class” public school systems, including fiscal mismanagement and governance policies that contribute to this low performance. What is the key to unlocking better school performance in the suburbs? Izumi and Murray find that the best remedy would be to give all families the opportunity to choose the right schools for their children.