"It takes them eight or nine months to agree on an attendance policy," Fantini says. "The superintendent [Bobbie D'Alessandro] isn't strong enough [to change the agenda]."

While not all the candidates assess the situation so harshly, most say they would prefer the Committee to shift its emphasis.

Walzer, a longtime parents' advocate and author of the Parents' Guide to Cambridge Schools, believes the Committee should focus on improving communication between parents and schools.

Regarding test scores, Walzer says, "I think that scores are an issue to a certain extent. If we focus on school reform, that we make sure that all our schools have well-defined philosophies and are communicating, the scores will rise."

"I don't really think that MCAS told us much that we didn't really know before," she adds.

Another issue that concerns Walzer is declining enrollment. Between 1000 and 1500 seats in the school system are empty, according to city statistics.

"I think we're going to see the merger of some elementary schools. Our enrollment in them has steadily declined. Our kindergarten enrollment is below 500 students," she says. "We know that we've lost kids as they go up through the grades, so we need to confront the problems of can we affect enrollment, can we keep them in the system."

The Parental Vote