Mills Proposes Broad Urban Policy for N.Y.

By Caroline Hendrie

New York policymakers have proposed what they hope will become the first explicitly urban education agenda for one of the nation's most urban states, in a plan aimed at targeting state resources to where they're needed most.

The centerpiece of the "urban partnership" is a call for $202 million in extra state aid in the coming school year to help districts meet the state's rising academic standards. About three-quarters of that money would go to the 45 mostly urban districts that state officials have designated as "high need" because of their concentrations of students in jeopardy of academic failure.

The proposal by the state board of regents and Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills blends several new ideas with a range of strategies already under way, including an ongoing...