ABSTRACT
Preceding analyses of federal and metropolitan barriers to the opportunity of urban low-income people of color suggest that, if we are realistic, we will acknowledge the plethora of policy changes that must be accomplished in order to provide meaningful life chances for poor families and neighborhoods. These new opportunities-and their ultimate actualization by residents-will be crucial to the sustainability of urban school reform: Economic access and the improved social standing its fulfillment provides parents, students, and communities will be prerequisites to full funding and other educational opportunities in urban districts. But economic justice, this important precursor of systemic urban school reform, will not be achieved without concerted, sustained political struggle. Although activism for economic opportunity is necessary, educational reform must be a target of sustained contention, as well. As civil rights veteran Bob Moses has argued, urban students and communities will have to demand what many people say they do not want-quality education (2002, p. 20).
