This book addresses the problems that plague America's elementary, secondary and higher education schools, examining questions of racial discrimination, funding and the connection between poverty and educational outcomes. Challenging the role of the mass media in much that is wrong in education, it criticises the ethnocentric approach to education in the US. Left Behind seeks to replace complacency with critical thinking and explores the possibilities that exist for rebuilding a viable nation-wide education institution, in which 'what is best' is decided collectively, not by business entities, politicians and the professional class, but by ordinary people and those working in education.