It's the last week of school, the Lowell school budget issue was resolved with some compromises on all sides, and everyone is looking forward to vacation. However, in New York City, the school district must use the next seven weeks to come up with a plan that will prevent the court system from taking over the schools (see today's New York Times, Op-Ed page, "Courting School Troubles").

The courts have already ruled that city children are not getting the "sound, basic education" promised in the state's constitution, but no plan to redress the situation has been forthcoming from the legislature. The Times editorial takes the position that in order

"to meet the court's demands, and to achieve basic fairness, Mr. Pataki and the legislative leaders must change the formula for dividing up state school aid... suburban legislators say their districts should be guaranteed exactly the same percentage of state aid in the future as they get now. But the state could never afford to pile a new education aid program on top of the existing one. The old formula is doomed, and the only real question is whether the legislators will have the courage to change it themselves rather than letting the court do it."

We in Massachusetts should pay attention what happens in Albany, because we have our own recent court case (Hancock vs Driscoll) which ruled that many children in our state (Lowell was one of the plaintiffs) are not getting the education to which they are entitled under our constitution.