Education: Back to Square One

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In many American cities, young black men are a group in critical condition, growing up into lives of poverty, crime and early death. In an attempt to stem that tide, the board of education in Detroit -- where black males have a 54% dropout rate -- decided to establish three all-male public schools. Open to all races but focused chiefly on black students, they were to feature high academic standards, strict discipline and a stress on African-American history.

But the Detroit scheme hit a roadblock just weeks before school started, when the A.C.L.U. and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Detroit mother with three daughters. The suit argued that the plan would deny girls the right to an equal education. Not incidentally, black girls in Detroit have a 45% dropout rate. Last week U.S. District Judge George E. Woods agreed and ordered school officials to come up with a program to accommodate both sexes. "The young adolescent black male is most definitely an endangered species in this community," said Woods. "But the board has not shown the presence of girls would harm the learning of boys."