When I Was Young, I Was Religious.

In Public Schooling, Social Policy Has Been Turned Back Almost One Hundred Years.

If We Allow Public Funds To Be Used To Support Our Relatively Benign, Morally Grounded Schools, We Will Have To Allow Those Public Funds To Be Used For Any Type Of Private School.

Now, I Don't Expect What I Write To Change Things. I Think I Write Now Simply As A Witness. This Is How It Is. This Is What We Have Done. This Is What We Have Permitted.

In The Book, I Write About Children In First Grade Who Were Taught To Read By Reading Want Ads. They Learned To Write By Writing Job Applications. Imagine What Would Happen If Anyone Tried To Do That To Children In A Predominantly White Suburban School.

Placing The Burden On The Individual To Break Down Doors In Finding Better Education For A Child Is Attractive To Conservatives Because It Reaffirms Their Faith In Individual Ambition And Autonomy. But To Ask An Individual To Break Down Doors That We Have Chained And Bolted In Advance Of His Arrival Is Unfair.