School desegregation and fiscal inequities continued to be hotly debated as legal and policy issues, but public interest in and support for radical education innovations waned.
Budget cutbacks in many districts precluded expensive reforms.
It would take major economic and social changes to return educational equity to the national spotlight. Raising standards without providing adequate support to schools may increase academic failure and dropout rates. Costs of school failure . The personal, economic, and social costs of academic underachievement are high. As the recent turbulence in Los Angeles and other cities shows, vast education and economic disparities can be explosive.