The De-Valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children.

• Author: Georges, Gigi

William J. Bennett. Summit, $20. A decade ago, Bill Bennett swept into Washington and swirled up a tornado of controversy. As Ronald Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, then during his stint as secretary of education, and finally as drug "czar" in the Bush administration, Bennett never hesitated to speak his mind. And one way or another, he got a lot of other people talking.

Well, Bennett hasn't changed much since leaving the public sector. In his account of a decade of public service for Reagan and Bush, he defends his rocky career as a conservative standard-bearer in the nation's domestic policy debates.

He compiles here his oft-stated agenda. His prescription for the nation's failing public schools is essentially threefold: teaching a more "moral" curriculum, imposing greater school accountability, and implementating full public-private school parental choice. In higher education, he lambastes the academic elite as narrow-minded, misguided, self-serving, and unable to accept criticism. And concerning the drug war, he restates his belief in maintaining an expanded use of military intelligence, a tough attitude that leaves little room for examining the roots of drug use.

In pushing his agenda and calling for a renewed dialogue, Bennett claims to have an unflinching dedication to our children's future. And perhaps he does. Yet it often seems that his idea of a dialogue is standing before those who have differing views and bludgeoning them until they capitulate.

It is a shame that Bennett takes this approach, because despite his bullying attempts to discredit Democrats, liberals, and "intellectuals" as the rulers of a domestic Evil Empire, many of the views he lays out in this book are worthwhile. When considering education, for example, Bennett is on target when he emphasizes the need for greater commitment on the part of parents, teachers, and administrators to make schools work. He skillfully argues against decriminalization of drugs and makes the case for a strong criminal justice system as a force for change. He captures the outrage that most Americans feel toward drug pushers who are strangling an entire generation of urban poor.

Inevitably, though, Bennett takes his claims too far. He proudly asserts that as secretary of education, he "never fought for raising the federal education budget." This is particularly shameful to admit when there are thousands of schools that can't afford to supply each child with...