Sol Stern is Public Enemy Number One for the political zealots who are taking over as much of the K-12 terrain as they possibly can. After reading the article Mark mentions, you might want to try his book Breaking Free.

I reviewed it here. (Scroll down to second review.)

Most of the problems in American higher ed are deeply rooted in the follies of our K-12 education. Stern performs a great service in highlighting the dumbing down and politicization that is so prevalent in K-12 systems.