Observation of several community-school groups in Boston has led the authors to conclude that most of these groups are small, weak, and vulnerable to internal disruption; their impact on the substance of education has been thus far slight. (DM)

The educational funding system in Massachusetts has become less equitable than before, since the passage of Proposition Two and a Half. A decision-making process driven by zero-sum economics, rather than educational needs, is particularly harmful to urban youth; failure to educate every young American threatens the nation's social and economic…