I had no idea Education in the US was such a disaster before reading this book.

The author is a historian and served in the Dept of Education under the Bush and Obama administrations so she’s very knowledgeable on the subject but also has a way of writing and explaining things so that someone like me (read: no professional background in Education) can grasp the concepts. Ravitch does a really good job of laying out the facts and then letting the reader infer where there are problems or issues. On some of the issues, she actually argues both sides.

Cool book, I’m sure I’ll pick it up again in the future if I ever have kids and grow frustrated from first hand experience with our education system.