In the midst of a period of major educational reform, questions about standards, quality, and excellence have dominated at the expense of questions about access and equity. To begin with, certain myths must be challenged. The belief that schools were once uniformly better than today is a distortion of history. So is the belief that attempts at greater equity in the 1960's and early 1970's eroded the quality of education. In spite of some gains, however, there is still a long way to go. The percentage of students completing high school has declined annually since 1972, and race and social class remain powerful factors in educational success. Unfortunately the measures advocated by the 1980's "return to quality" reforms have been tried before without success, while programs such as Headstart and Title I, which reseach has shown to have many benefits, are not being applied widely or equitably enough . Parents, students, and political leaders giving testimony at hearings on schools offered these thoughts about equity and access: some groups of children seem to matter more than others; the "creaming" of white middle class children by the gifted magnet schools depresses regular schools; little is done to retain or bring back pregnant or parenting teens; women face educational and economic discrimination; and school finance varies inequitably among school districts and among states. Clearly the United States has far to go to achieve a democratic, fully equitable, and accessible educational system. (RDN)