When buying a house, it’s a good idea to search in well-to-do neighborhoods, because their schools provide a high-quality education, right? Not so, say the authors of this book, three fellows at the Pacific Research Institute. They analyze standardized-test results in some of California’s wealthier communities, where average house prices can range from $200,000 to over $1 million, and discover that in 284 schools, more than half the students in at least one grade level score below proficient in English or math. (An accompanying pullout breaks down data for each school in areas such as level of education attained by parents and percentage of teachers with emergency credentials.) In addition, their research shows that significant numbers of middle-class high school students are not college-ready when they graduate. The authors consider reasons for the disparities in perceived and actual performance, such as fiscal mismanagement and collective bargaining agreements, and propose as a solution the expansion of school choice from the cities to the suburbs. Though based on California’s experience, their arguments are ones that advocates of wider options in education could see as equally applicable nationally.