This study finds that the New York City version of school-based decision making, School-Based Management/Shared Decision Making (SBM/SDM), fails to bring school-based management or shared decision making to the schools. This report begins by describing the seriously dysfunctional structure of the New York City public schools and explains the enormous potential of school-based decision making for solving some of the structural problems. Why New York SBM/SDM has been such a failure is analyzed, and some other school-based decision models, from Dade County (Florida) and Chicago (Illinois) are described. In New York, SBM/SDM has turned out to be a cautious, politically correct, insider's version of school restructuring, with only weak teacher involvement and token parental involvement. The school-based management component has not delegated any authority from the community school boards of the central bureaucracy, as the experiences of specific schools illustrate. Parents in New York have the choice of working to reform SBM/SDM or working for its reform as well as the implementation of the Regents' New Compact for Learning and the regulation that mandates a plan for school governance at every school in the state. An appendix contains six documents related to the SBM/SDM effort and school reform. (SLD)