Are America?s public schools really broken? Are our public schools putting us in danger of being overtaken by foreign counties? Is it true that Johnny can?t read?

In “The Death of the Public School: Why so much money and good intentions have failed our children’s education – and what to do about it,” Dr. Wendolyn Bouie, a veteran public school principal and administrator, explodes many of the myths that have driven public education policy in the United States for over sixty years. Ever since Sputnik soared overhead in 1957, we have experienced wave after wave of cries to “do something” to fix our public schools. As Dr. Bouie reveals, time after time the impulse to act has led to a failure to identify the real problems that affect schools in low-income neighborhoods. We spend billions of dollars trying to “fix” our schools when in fact the real problems lie beyond the schoolyard, in the communities where students live and work. While it may be politically expedient to send billions of federal dollars to the states and into schools, experience and studies have shown over and over again that these efforts do not improve performance at low-income schools.

We’ve been missing the mark and solving the wrong problems.

Edited by Thomas Hauck, this hard-hitting book shows why. Our focus should not be on the schools – studies repeatedly show that America’s public school system is very successful. Our efforts should be aimed at the low-income students, their families, and their communities. We need to prepare our children before they walk through the door of the schoolhouse. To do anything else is to continue down the same ineffectual path we?ve been on since the days of Sputnik. It’s time for a real change, and this book shows the new path to school success.

• Thomas Hauck is a leading freelance ghostwriter and book editor.