The dilemma of how to improve our public schools perplexes many Americans.
Graduates know less now than they used to.
The crisis is especially severe for urban minority youth, who attend schools that no longer provide an engine of mobility for those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. On the contrary, predominantly minority schools are now so inferior that they actively hold young people back from achieving their potential. American educational failure is confirmed by the poor performance of our students on international tests. Young Americans cannot compete with youths in other nations. The pages that follow show that these claims are similar, indeed nearly identical, to what has been said about American schools for a century or more.