In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared the United States "A Nation at Risk" because of inadequate education. A decade and a half later, the United States is still at risk because U.S. schools are failing children. Dropout rates have declined, and college attendance has risen, but student achievement has remained flat and college remediation rates have risen to unprecedented levels. The United States is the only country in the world in which children fall farther behind the longer they stay in school. In fact, a dual school system is developing, with a widening gap between good schools and poor schools. Poor and minority children usually go to worse schools, and their families have the least power to alter bad situations. Power over the education system has increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few who really don't want change. Equal educational opportunity is the next great civil rights frontier. The main strategies for change should center on standards, assessment, and accountability and allow for pluralism, competition, and choice to ensure the best for all children. (Contains five references.) (SLD)