I.S. 201: Disaster in the Schools

On the first day of the Spring semester in 1964, the New York public school system was struck by a boycott through which citywide organizations managed virtually to empty every ghetto school. The object was integration; the results were eight schools paired on the “Princeton Plan,” a raft of lofty proposals, and constant turmoil ever since.

Today the eight paired schools (in themselves a comedown from the sixty the Board of Ed first promised) are falling apart, decimated by...