Four separate societal movements in the past twenty-five years have brought about the belief that formal education is a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself: technological, educational, social, and population changes. Given these changes, the issue of urban desegregation must be reexamined from the viewpoint of the following principles: (1) there is a direct relationship between academically low, predominantly black schools, school segregation, and young adult unemployment; (2) there are no incentives for middle-class college oriented whites to voluntarily enroll their children in predominantly black schools; and (3) there is no way to provide heterogeneous schooling, because of white flight, unless the problem of housing patterns is addressed. There are three major explanations for the patterns of residential segregation: socioeconomic factors, racial discrimination, and individual preference. New incentives are needed to make compatible the conflicting goals of improving basic skills for minority children in specialized settings with uniquely prepared staffs and desegregating students into schools where teachers have not been properly trained. Such incentives may be magnet schools; incentives for school districts or individual schools; incentives for schools in conjunction with voucher plans; and financial incentives to children or parents for attending integrated schools. (Author/WI)