Edison Schools' CEO Chris Whittle has written a new book sharing his vision for the future of public education.

Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future for Public Education will be published in September by Riverhead Books, a member of the Penguin Group (USA), one of the world's largest publishing houses.

Excerpts from the book appear in the August 29 issue of Time magazine.

"Over the last decade, I've had a unique vantage point from which to learn about public education and student achievement," said Whittle. "I've learned through some extraordinary educators, such as those at Edison Schools and our public-school partners. And I've learned through my own experiences--both the successes and the mistakes."

"I am prouder than ever to be associated with public education -- and more hopeful and optimistic than ever about its future," Whittle said. "Crash Course shares the best ideas I have uncovered over those years, including many I have learned through the great work of others. I hope they will help to energize a new conversation to imagine just how great our schools of the future can be."

Edison Schools President and COO Terry Stecz predicted that the book would create a new excitement about the future of public education and help to move education back to its rightful place at the forefront of the U.S. agenda.

"This is a positive, real-world assessment of things we can do -- and questions we need to ask -- to create the very best schools in the world and to give our public educators the systems and support they deserve," said Stecz.

One example: Whittle argues that the United States must embark on a concerted new investment strategy in education research and development. Only through enhanced and sustained R&D will the U.S. develop the breakthrough school designs that will be necessary to make leaps in student achievement, Whittle says.

Whittle notes in Crash Course that the federal government spends about 100 times more on healthcare research and development than it does on education.

"If education is truly the priority we say it is, then we must not just fund education as it is today -- we also must invest methodically in its future improvement," agreed John Chubb, Edison's chief academic officer. "We need a systematic means to pursue great new ideas such as those offered by Chris and other public-education thinkers. And then we need a systematic way to test such ideas, to determine which ones should be brought into the classroom."

The book also urges America never to lose sight of the many children in our schools who are not yet learning.

"Those of us who are strong advocates for public education must never lose our sense of outrage that so many children in our schools -- particularly children of color -- are not yet learning as they can and should," said Deborah McGriff, Edison executive vice president and former superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools. "Crash Course reminds us of how much better we need to be -- and inspires us to embrace the accountabilities and innovations necessary to serve those kids as they deserve. "

Edison Board Chairman Benno Schmidt, the former president of Yale University, said, "Crash Course is the kind of book that intuitively makes sense. Its ideas are profound and compellingly explained. At their core, they are common-sense ideas, learned from a decade in public education --ideas that have the potential to take our schools to new levels of excellence. They deserve to be seriously debated and explored."

The Crash Course book jacket includes words of praise from two former U.S. secretaries of education.

"I believe & we are on the brink of extraordinary change in the way we teach our children," said Rod Paige. "Chris Whittle is an important agent of that change -- a fact that is amply confirmed by this powerful book..."

"It is partisan in only one sense," said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Crash Course. "It is fiercely for a better future for our children." Alexander chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development.

"Crash Course is a book of great hope," wrote Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and former managing editor of TIME, in a forward to the book. "Whittle believes America's public schools can become, in our lifetimes, the best on the globe -- indeed, even an export. & I hope this book will provoke not shallow debate but a substantive discussion of the important ideas presented here."