As culturally-diverse students feel trapped in failing public schools and abandoned by the system school choice offers a way out and a way up for students who have not succeeded in existing public schools. Many of the intractable problems that plague culturally diverse students are deeply rooted in the poverty, unemployment, crime, racism, and cultural differences that pervade the neighborhoods around them. Educators who work in our nation's schools represent the conscience of a society because they shape the conditions under which future generations learn about themselves and their relationships to others in the world. Educators, families and community members need to reinvigorate the language, social relations, and politics of schooling. We need to address the issues of school culture, poverty and violence. We need to look at new and future trends in education. Our goal is to achieve results. Parents, teachers and students must come together to make a difference. Ideas and people can change the course of history.

"Leiding's slim book pulls no punches. She confronts the problems of education in the US boldly and with refreshing directness. Her suggestions provide reasonable approaches that offer hope for the future. Unencumbered by multiple citations, her concise style makes for an easy read. Leiding calls for fresh approaches to replace the numerous ways that educational change has been addressed--ways that have yielded little if any improvement, and have done actual damage. The book considers the impact of racism, poverty, and the structural organization of society as major contributors to the weakening of public education. It argues for competition, against the testing mania, and for curriculum that lessens the difference between "school" and "real life" knowledge. Because today's school culture brings challenges unknown in previous times, (e.g., low achievement, shootings, drugs, technology, and teen pregnancy), a fresh approach to the problem of education in the US is needed. Fresh approaches grow out of frank consideration of what matters. Identifying what matters--equity, community, and learning--and then acting on it can move the US closer to having the schools it needs. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels." - CHOICE