Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The politics of the federal education state : faith in education and the turn toward punitiveness
Part I. From political economy to equal opportunity : the struggle over ideas, 1932-1965. To reconstruct or adjust? The battle within the progressive education movement, 1920s-1940s
The achievement of civil rights within the status quo : race and class in black political visions, 1930s-1950s
Courts, communism, and commercialism : the rise of the liberal incorporationist coalition
Part II. From ideology to institutionalization : the foundations of the federal education state, 1965-1980. The great society and the ideological origins of the federal education state
From belief to blame : federal funding and the punitive policy shift
Conclusion: The enduring legacy of the liberal incorporationist education state : persistence and possibility in the current era

"In an era defined by political polarization, both major U.S. parties have come to share a remarkably similar understanding of the education system as well as a set of punitive strategies for fixing it. Combining an intellectual history of social policy with a sweeping history of the educational system, Daniel S. Moak looks beyond the rise of neoliberalism to find the origin of today's education woes in Great Society reforms"-- Provided by publisher.