The current debate over cutbacks in social programs for the black poor tends to overlook two fundamental realities. First, there has been a significant, long-term reduction in the number of black poor. Although black poverty remains at unacceptably high levels, a majority of blacks are now members of the middle class. Several factors have contributed to this advance, but the dominant one was dramatic improvement in the quality of black education. This resulted largely from Southern black migration to the better schools of the North and from the overall rise in the quality of Southern schools. Now that these trends have run their course, further improvement in black schooling depends critically on what takes place in urban balck schools of the North. By concentrating on the merits of the "safety net" of social programs, all sides are running away from the real issue of school quality. Further reductions in black poverty will not materialize unless we deal with the problems in our nations' black schools. (KH)