New London's border is a Red Line. Why? For years our school district has been trolling near the bottom of the state of Connecticut. It is hard to believe, but recently published test results have put us at the bottom of the state - below Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and other larger urban districts.

More disturbing than the poor achievement is the lack of accountability and/or anyone taking responsibility. This tolerance for mediocrity at best - and failure at worst - is unacceptable. As a community we need to demand positive results and improvement. Finger pointing and excuse making is also unacceptable. The Truman creed, "The buck stops here," does not seem to apply to our school board and superintendent.

Education is the single largest issue facing New London. People have choices where to live and a quality school system is at the top of the list. A high performing school system is like a magnet drawing people in. The school system impacts everyone in the community, whether you have children in school or not. A quality school district enhances property values, which in turn helps grow and stabilize the city's Grand List, which is the basis for local taxes.

Everyone has a vested interest in a high performing school district. Not only do people want to live in a community with a strong school system, but invest in it as well, and business formation and jobs will follow. A good local example of this dynamic is East Lyme.

Poverty, single-parent homes, English as a second language and other socio-economic conditions - often used as excuses for poor academic performance in New London - are prevalent in other places as well, such as Harlem. Yet through the Harlem Children's Zone, founded by Geoffrey Canada and featured on 60 Minutes, extraordinary academic and community achievement is taking place. Mr. Canada has not only looked outside the box, but has been building a successful community/academic program one block at a time.

From a humble beginning of one block, the Harlem Children's Zone has grown to 100 blocks. Their mission, as quoted by The New York Times Magazine on the HCZ website, "combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web, and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood. The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through."

No one can convince me that New London is more distressed than Harlem. Why are we not looking at this model?

Shortly after being appointed mayor by my fellow council members last December, I discussed this program with the superintendent personally, the school board directly and submitted for the record to the City Council a letter I had written to Mr. Canada outlining our situation along with an appeal for help this past March. It appears to me that the powers to be within the school leadership are content with the status quo.

Same programs, same budget and same results.

A key change to the City Charter, along with the new strong mayor, is a provision that the mayor will have an ex-officio seat on the Board of Education. This is a role I will take seriously. If elected, I intend to play a significant part in the discussion of improving our schools. I will be at the table, not in the gallery.

Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, has utilized his position and the inherent bully pulpit to effectuate major positive change to the New York City school system, one of the most bureaucratic in the nation.

Many have suggested to me that the problems in New London's schools are intractable and cannot be fixed. I strongly disagree. Until this system is turned around New London will continue to have a Red Line around it. I prefer to take the tack that President John F. Kennedy Jr. took when addressing the nation with the challenge of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely, "We do this not because it is easy. We do this because it is hard."

We succeeded then and we can succeed again.

Martin T. Olsen Jr. is a petitioning candidate for mayor of New London.