I couldn't resist sending my grandchildren an article in last Sunday's paper about village schools in Pakistan, including a photo of the first girl permitted to learn how to read and write. I was reminded by it that my years in North Africa and in South America showed me just how unusual we are in our value of public education for all. I don't know of any country in Europe, either, that has an educational system meant for everybody.

In **The American Dream and the Public Schools** published by Oxford University Press, Harvard faculty member Jennifer Hochschild and Princeton faculty member Nathan Scovronick collaborate to show us the dream and the reality. It's a 300-page book, it costs $35, and our Public Library system, I hope, will respond to requests to buy it.

A review in **Booklist** tells us: "The authors ask how schools can succeed when legislators and parents expect them to enable each child to live out an American dream premised upon an unexamined contradiction. That contradiction emerges from an American self-concept that at once affirms the prerogatives of private ambition AND the moral obligations of community membership."

A review in **Publisher's Weekly** tells us: "Our choices -- whether about school-funding, school-choice, vouchers, bilingual education, or special education --polarize the success of individuals and the common good of all students as a whole. How to resolve this tension is the theme...This well-researched, up-to-date, and balanced look at hot-button issues examines all sides of the debates...These authors have done their homework, and they don't have an axe to grind."

Finally, a review by Berkeley writer Annie Decker in a recent **San Francisco Chronicle** quotes the authors as saying that the American dream is "a brilliant ideological invention in which three-fourths of Americans profess to believe".

The book crunches numbers, and we need that right now: 47 million children (90% of those K-12 age) attend public schools. More than half of all local government employees work for public schools.

"Of the billions of dollars spent, the states provided 48 %, local entities 44 %, and the federal government 8%. This makes our public school system intensely local. It also makes it, the authors argue, a system of nested inequalities.

Decker continues "Instead of perpetuating pious hope, Hochschild and Scovronick wish to cultivate knowledgeable and principled responses to the imperfect public schools system--and they might succeed."

Hope so. We wouldn't like the alternatives. Let us have your thoughts by emailing jradcli [at] mystudybuddy [dot] org . When you type it in, be sure to use the @ instead of the word "AT". Be sure to include your name and email address.