The problem is bigger than the initial expectation that led me to read this. Education has been slow to change, recognizing none of the efficiencies in technology or intellectual progress seen in other knowledge-oriented trades. Brimelow examines how the unyielding political weight of the educational union has caused these deficiencies. He also highlights the extreme mis-allocation of resources that has resulted. The U.S. has never exceeded a graduation rate of 77%. We throw more and more dollars toward this metric, dollars which might be better spent on other types of training or other endeavors. ( )

This spirited takedown of American teacher's unions is well-written and convincing. Its only fault is the inherently distasteful nature of its subject matter -- as a reader sympathetic to Brimelow's stance, I never the less reached a point where I just didn't want to know much more about the internal workings of the NEA. ( )