This paper discusses changes over the last 40 years in teacher education in the USA that have resulted in two very different strategies for improving the preparation of teachers and in substantial inequities in the distribution of the teaching force. The strengths and limitations of promoting greater deregulation and privatisation versus investing in strengthening the dominant college and university system of teacher education are discussed. A case is presented for rejecting the deregulation and privatisation agenda and for reinventing college and university-based programmes.