I'm with you 100% NicoleC. My children go to a school in a middle class suburb of NYC and many of the issues that you describe exist - and I would like to add one more - overcrowded schools.

However, that does not take the place of the potential safeguards created by Affirmative Action.    College is not mandatory and the merits of insuring an opportunity to those who historically have been denied is not a bad thing,in my opinion.

Ron