I Feel, In The End,

Competitive Skills Are Desperately Needed By Poor Children In America, And Realistic Recognition Of The Economic Roles That They May Someday Have An Opportunity To Fill Is Obviously Important, Too. But There Is More To Life, And There Ought To Be Much More To Childhood, Than Readiness For Economic Functions.

The White House, In Advancing The Agenda For A [school] "choice" Plan, Rests Its Faith On Market Mechanisms. What Reason Have The Black And Very Poor To Lend Their Credence To A Market System That Has Proved So Obdurate And So Resistant To Their Pleas At Every Turn?

So Long As These Kinds Of Inequalities Persist, All Of Us Who Are Given Expensive Educations Have To Live With The Knowledge That Our Victories Are Contaminated Because The Game Has Been Rigged To Our Advantage.

By Far The Most Important Factor In The Success Or Failure Of Any School, Far More Important Than Tests Or Standards Or Business-model Methods Of Accountability, Is Simply Attracting The Best-educated, Most Exciting Young People Into Urban Schools And Keeping Them There.

On Mondays And Fridays In Early May, Nearly 18,000 Children-the Equivalent Of All The Elementary Students In Suburban Glencoe, Wilmette, Glenview, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Deerfield, Highland Park And Evanston-are Assigned To Classes With No Teacher.