ABSTRACT
The main news Americans were taught about colleges during the George Bush years was that they had been infected with a galloping moral disease, "political correctness" (PC). The construction of the monster PC depends upon highly partisan interpretations of a series of campus events. The American education system has always been a means for stratifying society. The construction of the PC monster was one of the major preoccupations of cultural conservatives, especially during the days of George II. Schools used to sort students—primarily on the basis of class characteristics—into variously named tracks or into "ability" groups. In the community college system, "over 100,000 potential students, most seeking job retraining, were unable to obtain courses" they needed in fall 1991 because classes were filled or eliminated, and at least an equal number were, in 1992, unable to pursue their courses of study at their local colleges.
