As a scholar/practitioner who has been involved for more than forty years in efforts to improve urban schools and districts, the author is struck by the confluence of factors that seem to be coming together to support this major new effort to rescue the neediest students in urban America. Is it possible that the idealism of the 1960s is finally going to be connected in a practical way to the resources provided by the federal and state government, along with the largesse of the foundations and nonprofit world? In the spirit of advancing this agenda and adding to it, the author offers some alternative policy options that should be considered if the nation is serious about the rescue of its neediest students in urban America. These are: (1) Fund some demonstration projects in America's urban districts that are willing to use the approach of Scandinavian and Asian countries like Finland and Singapore in pursuing teacher excellence; (2) Provide more federal research money to study the best instructional practices of America's higher performing urban districts; (3) Study the administrative support structure at hard-to-staff urban schools; (4) Pilot statewide collective bargaining in some large states; and (5) Provide new federal research funds to study governance in large urban school systems.