Annually in Canada and the United States, thousands of children are removed from public schools by their parents on the grounds that the system is no longer delivering the goods. Private school enrollments are again rising, home schooling is burgeoning and charter schools are being hailed as the innovative solution to the educational ills of the twenty-first century.

This book examines the history of public schools underscoring the tremendous costs at which our public system of education came into being. A series of threatening alternatives to public schooling are examined, showing the deficiencies of each when compared to state-sponsored systems.