This study argues that significant improvements in education can be made only if there are drastic improvements in the life circumstances of America's lower classes. Improving the life circumstances of the lower classes also means providing their schools with the resources they need. And not least in this new outlook on education is the need to recognize that schools have little causal power in their own right--there is strong evidence that formal education at both elite and nonelite levels is not related to positive outcomes in either citizenship or work. If we want good citizens and good workers/professionals, we have to figure out how to produce them directly.