This interesting text is based on the papers read at the commemorative conference (held at Misty Hills in South Africa in April 2004) and critically examines the progress that South Africa and the United States have made towards realising equal educational opportunities for all.

The principle of equal educational opportunity has been central to the discourse about justice in public education throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Over the last several decades, however, it has been eviscerated by the political right and has fallen into disrepute with postmodernists and the political left. Howe provides a vigorous defense of the "participatory interpretation" of equal educational opportunity, and employs it to critically evaluate several contemporary policy domains.