Louis Sullivan, an American architect, was referred to as the "father of modernism" and coined the phrase "form follows function.” His phrase provides a key insight into the state of public education in America. The existing form for public education is industrial in nature and is not a match for what should be the function of an education system in an information age society—one that is characterized by technology, globalism, a new definition of work, and rapid, relentless change.

This book explains how the mismatch between function and form is creating circumstances that are putting the future of public education at risk, leading to system dysfunction, deregulation, and privatization. Public education needs to be redesigned and reformatted to match the function of the age in which we now live. The current structure and function denies too many students the levels of access, equity, and opportunity that their parents once enjoyed. Achieving that outcome is important to the economic, social, and political wellbeing of America.