ABSTRACT
AS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY begins, the United States is confronted with a host of complex problems that touch every segment of society. The nation’s urban communities are in crisis as homelessness, crime, and severe poverty continue to take their toll. Once again, our public education system is under attack. The embarrassing discovery that millions of adults are illiterate has stoked the fires of education reformers who believe that massive changes are needed for the United States to compete successfully in a rapidly changing, increasingly interdependent world. The number of Americans who lack adequate health care because of prolonged unemployment or underemployment has become a national disgrace as U.S. corporations continue to move their operations abroad. Although labor officials and the general public have expressed outrage over the loss of well-paying jobs and the displacement of thousands of blue-collar and white-collar workers, they seem virtually helpless in dissuading corporations from pursuing this “competitive” cost-saving strategy.
