It’s more hope than prediction. A year’s happiness turns on a great many things over which you and I have little control.

One of them is the new administration about to take over from President Clinton – and what that will mean for our school district.

President George W. Bush – or perhaps more importantly, his administrative staff – brings a new set of policies and procedures. It will take us, and him, some time to figure out what they are.

While we wait, one of the best guidebooks of which I am aware is a new 193-page paperback by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose titled Shrub.

Molly Ivins is a friend and a cult figure. If you’re a fan I need say no more. If you’re not, any book or column of hers will make you one. She’s bright, informed, hilarious, and determined to explain Texas to the outside world. Lou Dubose is the editor of the Texas Observer, an investigative reporting journal with an equally devoted following.

Together they know Dubya, or Shrub, as well as any two writers in America. And what they offer us is balanced and factual. As a result, neither those who adore Bush without reservation nor those determined to dismiss him with ridicule will like the book.

It’s the product of the authors’ recognition that for non-Texans to understand the state of Bush’s mind they need to know much more about the mind of Bush’s state.

I spent most of the 1950s in Texas. By picking professors carefully the University of Texas provided what I look back upon as an excellent undergraduate and law school education. But just being in Austin (and then Houston) was an education in itself for this Iowa boy.

Later another Texas president brought me into his administration and provided more insight into the ways of Texas politics and business. It can be at once both delightful and disgusting, gross and generous. But always larger than life.

Ivins once characterized Texans as folks who think “more is better and too much is not enough.” I recall a billboard outside Austin that bragged it was “the world’s largest billboard.”

If you haven’t lived amongst Texans, Ivins and Dubose provide the next best insight I know into Texas in general and George W. Bush in particular. What Ivins calls “the Lege” (Texas Legislature). The role of business in politics. The influence of the Christian right. President-elect Bush’s past, the limits of the Texas governorship, and his record in office.

It is his education record that is of greatest interest to this column. It is, say the authors, something for which he “deserves real credit.”

He and his wife, Laura, seem to have grasped the urgency in former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton’s observation that, “The single most un-American aspect of our great society is the lack of truly equal educational opportunity.” It’s a challenge for every school district including ours. Bush has done something about it in Texas.

Ivins and Dubose call it the story of “How We Rocketed from Abysmal to Pretty Damn Good in Just Thirty Years.” They credit early-childhood education, smaller class sizes and the equalization of funding between districts.

But it’s also true that it did take 30 years, and therefore much of the credit must go to such others as Governors Mark White and Ann Richards – and Ross Perot. That’s right, Ross Perot.

Bush’s mistakes along the way? Sure. Putting too much emphasis on one statewide exam (TAAS). Pushing charter schools faster than they could be administered. Bush sometimes ignores policy advisors’ warnings because “policy simply does not interest him,” the authors note.

There are lots of reasons to read Shrub – not least for laughs. And at $8.99 before discounts, educators and parents will find the insights in the education chapter alone well worth the price of the book.

Nicholas Johnson is an Iowa City School Board member. More information is available on his Web site www.nicholasjohnson.org.