It is late in the school year and the temps in New York are in the high nineties.

...perhaps a little drama there? I agree that it is possible for New York to have 90+ days in May, but not many. Here in KY we usually have 90+ days in July. I taught in an unairconditioned classroom that was unbearable when the temps hit 90. We've also had newspaper articles about schools without airconditioning...the principals make a point to not have it in their office. And you don't have to go to NY to see an "inner city" school system. My school qualified as such (based on a system for awarding federal money according to various demographic factors ie. single parent homes, racial minorities, subsidized lunches, etc.) I can tell my share of horror stories about guns, drugs, threats, poverty...

Incidentally, this bit about standardized tests being unfair is often taken totally out of context and used in biased arguments.

As most folks on this thread have noted, the problem is not race, but economics. A rich white kid has more in common with a rich black kid than with a poor white kid.

Don't get me started on education issues. There are simply too many people (ALL politicians especially) who have never spent time (real time, extended time) in the classrooms we have today. Just because you were a student 30 years ago doesn't mean you have any idea what it's like today. Or even having children in the schools...as a parent I learned absolutely nothing compared to what I saw as a teacher.

Our schools are a reflection of our society, and I feel very, very pessimistic about our future. Reforms are badly needed, but IMO cannot be legislated from the top-down. Here in KY the school system was declared unconsitutional...several years ago...and we're still "swimmin' in a mudhole!"