Urban Education

Condemning what they described as years of financial and political neglect, big-city education leaders last week called for a modern-day Marshall Plan to revitalize America's urban schools.

The proposal unveiled by the Council of the Great City Schools calls on states, corporations, and the public to spend more on city schools, and on federal officials to make urban education a higher national priority.

"If the government of the United States could devote billions of dollars to rebuild countries overseas, it certainly has the power to devote funds to rebuild schools here at home," said Michael D. Casserly, the council's executive director, in announcing the plan at the group's annual...