Educating the "right" Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality

As American schools undergo a dramatic shift to the right, Michael W. Apple, internationally acclaimed author and educator, uncovers the roots of this conservative swing and points the way to a more balanced approach.
Why have the needs of private business become top priorities in the public classroom? How did school vouchers move from the conservative fringe to the political mainstream? Why are scores on standardized tests falling, even as teachers are forced to cram more "facts" into their curricula?
Apple argues that the interests of some strange bedfellows -- neo-liberals, neo-conservatives, authoritarian populists, and the professional middle class -- have converged to threaten the egalitarian ideals on which American public education was built. He dissects how this coalition has pushed educational policies toward a combination of weak state practices (markets, school choice) and strong state practices (state-mandated curricula and testing).
A former classroom teacher himself, Apple offers concrete, common sense solutions that show what critical educators and parents can do to interrupt these trends and develop a more democratic educational system, suited to the needs of all American children.
Michael W. Apple is the Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has recently been awarded both a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Educational Research Association and a UCLA Medal for outstanding academic achievement in education.
* Apple is a world-renowned figure in educational and social policy. He is the editor of Routledge's very successful series Critical Social Thought
*Apple's book Ideology and Curriculumwas internationally voted as one of the top twenty books on education in the 20th century -- his books are published in fifteen languages
* Not merely a critique of the right, but of the left as well -- addresses current, critical problems in our schools