The greatest obstacle to good public schools is the indifference of the American public to teacher education. The authors discuss the past, present, and future of American teacher education. They argue that the key to quality public schools is the recruitment and retention of quality teachers and that educational reforms should be evaluated primarily on whether they encourage or discourage quality teachers from making teaching a career.

The authors summarize the perspectives of nine prominent educational critics who collectively represent a broad spectrum of educational thought in 20th-century America:
.John Dewey
.Robert Hutchins
.Arthur Bestor
.James Conant
.Theodore Brameld
.Charles Silberman
.Ivan Illich
.Albert Shanker
.Chester Finn
Each critic tackles, in a distinctive and provocative way, some of the perennial questions that should be considered in any effort to reform schools and teacher education.

In Part II the authors analyze the present-day status of teacher education and suggest how it might be improved. In Part III the authors speculate on what the future holds and how that will impact teacher education. The book concludes with an epilogue directed especially toward policymakers.