For the past decade Americans have been intensely concerned with the quality of American education, which is hardly surprising given the importance of education to society and the growing evidence of problems in American education. Nowhere are those problems more severe than in our inner cities, where learning has all but ceased in many schools. It was concern about inner-city children that led the Cato Institute to convene a conference, "Education and the Inner City," in Washington in October 1989. Most of the chapters in this volume were originally presented at that conference. As concern about the quality of American education begins to lead Mericans toward major structural reforms, the Cato Institute is pleased to present these essays. We believe they make a major contribution to the national debate on education reform.