This analysis of the educational crisis in New York City schools discusses some characteristics of de facto segregation in ghetto schools, the social background of Negro slum children, and the failure of teachers and curriculum to educate these students. A large portion of the article traces the various Board of Education attempts to integrate the schools and the response and demands of civil rights groups. A 1-day school boycott called in February 1964, to protest the inadequacy of the Board's pairing proposals may have forced a stronger integration plan from the Board. Although the boycott had positive effects on Negro self-respect, it did not solve the financial shortages faced by the city's school system or the problems of curriculum, bureaucratic administration, poor teaching quality, and the pulls of various pressure groups. Moreover, the boycott did not come to grips with the broader political issue of the need for the amalgamation of Negroes with others in the working class to transform other social institutions. It is felt that educational problems are insoluble unless there is a truly free society which values individuality, creativity, art, science, and knowledge more than it values competition and accumulation. (NH)