Imagine all this discussed out in the open, as anything in the state budget should be. The way the $200 million in political slush funds controlled by top state leaders are divvied up doesn't require such timely disclosure. If anything, the way so-called member item money is spent precludes it.

That's good for Assemblyman Ruben Diaz and his family, perhaps, but bad for the other 19 million or so New Yorkers.

Perhaps most of the more than $1 million that Mr. Diaz secured for the Soundview Community in Action in the Bronx from 1998-2003 was reasonably spent. All the more reason, then, for stripping away the secrecy behind the allocation of member items. But a more open budget process, treating the state's money less like it actually belongs to the politicians who control it, might have balked at helping to fund an endeavor that had three members of his family on its payroll.

- The Times Union, Albany

High school graduation rates in New York are alarming: At 58 percent, New York's 2003 graduation rate was third worst in the country and far, far below the national average. Worse, this is in a state whose per-pupil spending, at more than $12,000, is the nation's highest. Such disparity in resources and results is irreconcilable.

New York's graduation problem is heavily influenced by two familiar factors: low rates in New York City and among minorities.

In New York, the problem among minorities is much worse, with only 62 percent of Asians, 38 percent of African-Americans and 33 percent of Hispanics graduating. White students in New York graduate at a rate of 74 percent.

Of the nation's 100 largest school districts, meanwhile, New York City's graduation rate was 43 percent, the third lowest, behind Detroit and San Bernardino, Calif.

- The Buffalo News

Many factors no doubt contribute to this problem, and it is possible that students' home lives are among them. Children in dysfunctional homes are going to have disadvantages.