The question addressed is: Can education maintain high quality if it has to either accept or create equality? Americans throughout their history have defined justice to mean that the more open the society is, the more just it is; the more inclusive, the more acceptable. If the notion of quality is tied to an automatic exclusion of any percentage of the population, it is simply not acceptable in terms of American democracy. If, on the other hand, quality indicates a goal to be aimed at, a standard to be set, and an achievement to be defended, then it clearly is compatible with a great measure of equality. What we have to deal with in our institutions is not only the quality of scores or knowledge but also the quality of life and citizenship. (Author/MSE)