Local school boards in the United States spend almost $600 billion of the public's money and employ millions of Americans. They have a prime role, along with the home, in shaping the future for the country's young. Yet the more than 14,000 boards of education are obscure and most people have not the vaguest notion of how they operate and what impact they have. "School Boards in America" aims to provide a wide audience - educators and college students, board members, policymakers, parents and other taxpayers, and just about anyone interested in public affairs - with an inside view that will forever affect the ways in which they look at public schools and how they are governed.

Can a bold investment in education turn around the economy of an entire city? Gene I. Maeroff, a former education reporter for the New York Times, explores how the nonprofit group Say Yes to Education has instituted a network of reforms in Syracuse, New York, that supports students at every level from kindergarten through college. He traces out how Say Yes and the Syracuse school district built a coalition of partners in business, education, and local and state government, implemented a series of programs to improve the school system, and reached out to support students. Telling the story and identifying the strengths of this remarkable and replicable program, Maeroff shows how this focused, directed, and broad-based coalition has created a model for reviving the economy and civic fabric of American cities by investing in children's education.

Local school boards in the United States spend almost $600 billion of the public's money and employ millions of Americans. They have a prime role, along with the home, in shaping the future for the country's young. Yet the more than 14,000 boards of education are obscure and most people have not the vaguest notion of how they operate and what impact they have. "School Boards in America" aims to provide a wide audience - educators and college students, board members, policymakers, parents and other taxpayers, and just about anyone interested in public affairs - with an inside view that will forever affect the ways in which they look at public schools and how they are governed.

Can a bold investment in education turn around the economy of an entire city? Gene I. Maeroff, a former education reporter for the New York Times, explores how the nonprofit group Say Yes to Education has instituted a network of reforms in Syracuse, New York, that supports students at every level from kindergarten through college. He traces out how Say Yes and the Syracuse school district built a coalition of partners in business, education, and local and state government, implemented a series of programs to improve the school system, and reached out to support students. Telling the story and identifying the strengths of this remarkable and replicable program, Maeroff shows how this focused, directed, and broad-based coalition has created a model for reviving the economy and civic fabric of American cities by investing in children's education.