"People come to Cambridge from all over the world, which gives us a unique student body," Sullivan says.

And Harvard has recently fostered a number of volunteer programs within the city's public schools, involving University students to help out with tutoring and coaching sports for the elementary and high school students. Lesley College also draws praise for its student teaching program. "The university school interaction could be increased it somebody bad the time," Cooper says.

Another problem in the school system is one of "access and equity" --what to do about the unequal distribution of funds among the elementary schools. Sullivan says the Cambridge school system is lucky, because it has a $45 million budget, "enough to afford nearly anything we want." But other members of the community charge that the large resources are allocated only to certain schools.

"Parental involvement is the key to getting funds, and it varies from zealous to non existent," says Koocher, adding that the involved parents tend to come from the upper-middle-class neighborhoods, where families are more education minded. "Our highest priority for the future should be seeing that all kids in the city get equal resources," Koocher says. Koocher has accused Lannon of catering only to certain influential parents.

Because it is the school committee that allocates funds each year in making up the budget, how ever, that body must also share part of the blame Indeed, the committee has come under criticism recently for not listening to parental concerns. During the Lannon hearings, for instance, the strong parental support for Lannon seemed to have very little effect on the final decision, parents say.

"With a weak state school board, and little monitoring from the community at a local level, there is no mandate for Cambridge citizens to make sure the school committee represents its constituency," Tabor says, adding. "The system is susceptible to politics."