If We Knew Better We Would Do Better - A Brief History of Educational Alternatives

Often what happens in America, is that there is a fight over issues, education being one of them where people seem to fall along two sides (these days politically liberal and politically conservative). The problem is that those two camps cannot cover the complexity of the problem and as a result; simple solutions are proposed and long term solutions never happen. So what is it we are fighting over? Where did it begin? How did education become what it has become?