In the introduction to her new book, Peg Tyre quotes a Dad frustrated by the process of choosing a school. “It’s absurd. When you purchase a house, you get an inspector’s report. When you buy a sports car, at least you get to check under the hood. But now we are trying to do something that matters one thousand times more to our family than buying a house or purchasing a car—and what happens? We’re expected to attend the open house, shake hands with the principal, blindly enroll them, and have faith that everything will turn out all right. We don’t even get to look under the hood!” In The Good School, Tyre, a former Newsweek reporter and author of a best-selling book on boys, offers a look under the hood for harried parents worried about getting their children a top-notch education. In this edition of the Ed Next book club, Mike Petrilli talks with Tyre about parents’ concerns, the advice she gives them, and why it matters.

Additional installments of our Ed Next Book Club podcast can be heard here.