The financial crunch facing the nation has reduced the scope of educational opportunity and depreciated the quality of education for many White students, but it is the disadvantaged minorities who are the most victimized. Most Black and Hispanic children attend predominantly minority urban schools with disproportionate shares of special needs children. State, local, and Federal support have decreased so markedly, however, that these schools must reduce compensatory programs and services meant to allow disadvantaged children to compete on an equal basis with middle-income children. In higher education, Black enrollment gains are being eroded. The uncertainty of Federal financial aid programs, the raising of admission standards (including a decline in open enrollments), inferior high school educations, reductions in remedial and support services, and the poor state of the economy combine to produce a high attrition rate for Black students and to force an even greater percentage of Black high school graduates not to opt for college. In general, the disadvantaged have not been well served by American public education. However, retrenchments have eroded what gains were made and have been used as justification for de-emphasizing the need for compensatory treatment for those who have not shared sufficiently in public education's progress and achievements over the past 30 years. (CMG)