Hearing today may shed light on how our schools derailed

THE SON WAS angry much of the time, and is angry still. But the anger has a different target now. The son went to public school and the father went away on the railroad, and this was supposed to change the whole country. But the son stands there in the old Camden Yards train station and remembers his father's struggle, while a few blocks away, at the federal courthouse, school officials prepare to defend themselves today, and to explain all of the lost years.

Michael Olesker

August 3, 2004