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Heading Allen's list of priorities are urban ghetto schools, where he feels federal funds can have the most impact. "We have built a middle-class type of education taught by middle-class teachers and run by middle-class administrators for middle-class kids," he argues. "But rarely have we provided the type of teaching that a deprived child really needs." Desegregation and better teacher training are his next big goals. "We are shooting for the millennium," he says, "the time when man respects man." The school, he says, should not be a sheltered island in the community, but rather an all-purpose facility for children and adults alike.
Allen received a measure of the magnitude of his job when President Nixon's task force on education, headed by Carnegie Corporation President Alan Pifer, presented its report urging massive federal spending of up to $1 billion a year to save city schools. Even if he can pry that kind of money out of Congress, Allen is not likely to find much agreement on just how it is to be used. But bets are that whatever his eventual budget, James Allen will wind up spending the money his way.