The particular nest Payzant is involved with involves school assignment. For a quarter century, school assignment issues have been the hot button of Boston politics. The button has one big word on it: "busing." That word has been a divide between Boston's white and black communities. It has been largely responsible for pushing mostly white children and parents out of the school system and indeed, out of the city. It has also, however, been largely responsible for ending Boston's segregated school system and pushing the School Department to fund schools in minority neighborhoods the same way it funds those in white neighborhoods.

Out of the dissension has emerged some degree of consensus, however. For the most part, parents — white and black — agree that they want to be able to choose the schools to which their children go. For the most part as well, most parents agree that they would prefer to be able to send their kids — especially elementary school kids — closer to home.

It is these elements of consensus that Payzant has seized. He did so as part of the yearlong analysis conducted by the School Assignment Task Force. Created last summer at the urging of two city councilors (yours truly and At-Large Councilor Steve Murphy), the Task Force's mission has been to devise ways to enhance parental choice.

The conclusion? Boston has changed a lot since busing was first mandated by federal courts in 1974. Its neighborhoods are more ethnically diverse and that diversity means it is possible to devise neighborhood school zones that allow parents to choose schools close to them yet do not automatically result in a re-segregation of the system. Indeed, it appears that if done correctly, the diversity of the schools will be about the same after adoption of the plan as it is today.

There are a couple of caveats, however. Many black parents are concerned that the new plan is a possible regression. If the plan results in the creation of a more segregated school system, they argue, than predominately black schools may receive less funding and less support than predominately white schools. There is a subtle point to this argument that is worth noting. Equal funding from the school system is easy to mandate. But schools need more than money. They receive support from teachers, community activists, outside corporations and charitable organizations. There is a concern, and it seems legitimate, that these sources of support could be divvied up unequally.

The second caveat is that neighborhood schools should not supplant parental choice. Many parents may choose to send their kids to close-by schools. Others won't however, and their rights should be respected. (Indeed, at the high school level, it's quite clear that most parents have no problem sending their kids a long distance away to attend schools such as Boston Latin.)

A third caveat. At the end of the day, the issue with our schools is not the assignment process:  it's the quality of education children get when they show up. Improving the assignment process will have many beneficial effects. It will build communities, it will let parents become more involved in their kid's education. It may also have the salutatory effect of persuading people who have presently opted out of the system to come back in.

But when kids take achievement tests, we aren't measuring the distance they traveled from home to school. We're measuring their education. School assignment is a piece of the educational puzzle, but the big picture is quality. That's what Boston and Tom Payzant need to keep their eyes on.