American Notes BOSTON

No principle is more sacred to American public education than the authority of locally elected school boards. Yet the Boston city council voted last week to abolish the independent School Committee and put city hall directly in charge of Boston's 57,000 public-school students, 80% of them members of minorities. Black leaders and the School Committee protested the council's action, which must be approved by the Massachusetts legislature and signed by the Governor. But Mayor Raymond Flynn, who is pushing hard to overhaul the debt-ridden system, argues, "There's just no time anymore to sit around and think. We've got kids walking away from classrooms, who shoot and kill each other in the streets."

The School Committee has been paralyzed by its failure to hire a superintendent after dismissing the black incumbent, Laval Wilson, last February amid criticism that his management style was too aloof. The removal has sparked bitter charges of racism, and last week a leading candidate withdrew his name because of the continuing divisions. The council proposal would empower the mayor to hire and fire the superintendent. Critics worry, however, that such a move could open school doors even wider to political patronage.