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Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises
by Katie Benner
A riveting investigation into a school, a scam, and a notorious college admissions scandal that exposes the inequalities and racial segregation of American education, from two award-winning New York Times journalists.
T.M. Landry College Prep, a small private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, boasted a 100 percent college acceptance rate, placing students at nearly every Ivy League university in the country. The spectacle of Landry students opening their acceptance letters to Harvard and Stanford was broadcast on television and even celebrated by Michelle Obama. It became a national ritual to watch the miraculous success of these youngsters―miraculous because Breaux Bridge is one of the poorest counties in the country, ranked close to the bottom for test scores and high school graduation rates. T.M. Landry was said to be "minting prodigies," and the prodigies were often Black.
How did the school do it? It didn't―it was a scam, pulled off with fake transcripts and personal essays telling fake stories of triumph over adversity. Worse: Landry's success concealed a nightmare of alleged abuse and coercion. In a yearslong investigation, Katie Benner and Erica L. Green explored the lives of the students, the school, the town, and Ivy League admissions to understand why Black teens were pressured to trade racial stereotypes of hardship for opportunity.
Gripping and illuminating, Miracle Children argues that the lesson of T.M. Landry is not that the school gamed the system but that it played by the rules―its deceptions and abuses the outcome of segregated schools, inequitable education, and the belief that elite colleges are the nation's last path to life-changing economic opportunity.
"Razor-sharp...A damning look at the continued impact of race on educational opportunities in America." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A clear and nuanced account...[Benner and Green] describe the tension between the ideal of personal responsibility and the structural inequities in American society... Alarming." —Kirkus Reviews
"This engaging and well researched book would be a great read for anyone interested in modern American education and history."
—Booklist
"With meticulous reporting and a wellspring of empathy, Miracle Children lays bare not simply the failings of a single institution but the tangled history and flawed policy that allowed it to resemble a solution. This book shows what is at stake―for these students and for every American who cares about our future." ―Jelani Cobb, author of Three or More Is a Riot
"Miracle Children reads like a true-crime novel; you won't be able to put it down. And when you do set it aside, you'll be drawn back to the real crime at the heart of the story: America only values Black children when they 'beat the odds,' odds America itself created. Benner and Green braid history, personal narrative, and voices from the past to tell a story that is American to its core, of a nation where too many Black people have no choice but to lie, cheat, and steal just to claim a fraction of what is freely granted to White America―an education." ―Bettina L. Love, author of Punished for Dreaming
This information about Miracle Children was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katie Benner covers the Department of Justice for the New York Times, where she was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2018. She previously worked at CNN Money, Fortune, and Bloomberg and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, and Marketplace. She lives in Washington, DC.
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