The revolutionary change, says Barret, must be achieved by working within the public school system, not be abandoning it.

And the first step to changing the system, says Barrett, is to keep the students in school longer.

Barrett's call for extending the Massachusetts school year from 180 to 220 days not only provoked the attention of educators and politicians in the Commonwealth, but also turned the heads of natioanl leaders.

Newspapers across the Bay State penned editorials and articles on the school year issue that Barrett championed virtually singlehandedly on Beacon Hill.

And although some publications dubbed his proposals "common sense idealism" and contended that his plans "won't happen in our lifetime," most lent support to his efforts and hailed his reform recommendations as long-overdue.

"The issue [of a lengthened school year] will no doubt raise heated debate and that's good," wrote Boston Globe columnist Christine McKenna. "But someone had to bring the argument to the floor, and for that, Barrett deserves a gold star."

In April, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas S. Foley appointed Barrett to a newly-formed National Education commission on Time and Learning. The commission is part of President Bush's educational reform plan, America 2000.

While his championing of the issue of educational reform brought him into the spotlight most recently, Barrett first earned his reputation as a leader in 1989 after spearheading the successful effort to pass a gay and lesbian anti-discrimination law.

Picking up the two-decade-old effort to pass the civil rights legislation when he arrived at the State House, Barrett is considered by many gay and lesbian activists to be the lifeblood of the movement to write the antidiscrimination bill into law.

The watershed passage of the bill made Massachusetts the second state in the country behind Wisconsin to have such a liberal civil rights law.

The law, first introduced in 1973, prohibits discrimination against homosexuals in employment, credit, housing and public accommodations.

It seeks to protect people from discrimination on the basis of their sexual preference, just as it does on the basis of their sexual preferences, just as it does on the basis of sex, religion and ethnicity.

"He did a terrific job shepherding the law...it's been a major victory for us," says Katherine Triantafillou, member of Cambridge's gay and lesbian activist group, the Lavendar Alliance.

She adds that the law is "one of the pieces of the puzzle" that has propelled the momentum for passage of similar laws in other states.

"For Massachusetts it's completely changed the spirit of the gay and lesbian community," says Gary K. Daffin, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, the oldest the largest homosexual rights organization in the state.