Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

Well, if you are looking to be depressed about how our country handles the educational system, especially poor children, go right out and pick this up.

Almost two decades after its publication, Kozol's book remains relevant and essential. The persistence of racial and economic segregation in both urban and suburban schools, coupled with our nation's continued reliance on local property taxes to fund public education, has contributed to the inexcusable inequities in American schooling.

This is a great book that exposed the terrible inequity and inequality in public education in inner-city schools. If there is any one who doubts that local taxation is the wrong way to support public schools, you need to read this book. I would like to see an update to see what's happened in the 18 years since this book came out.

This book is a must-read for anybody offended by the concept of 'Robin Hood'-style funding for education. Rather than preaching, Kozol tells the stories of educationally-impoverished children using their own words in a book that is tragically eye-opening, especially to persons like myself who grew up in wealthy suburban schools.

Kozol inserts into the narrative his own reflections and elaborate descriptions of the on site visits. One thing I like about this book is that Kozol writes in such a way that I felt like I was at each school, walking the halls and listening to the conversations he had with students, teachers and administrators. Almost every site visit begins with a detailed description of the neighborhood, the weather, the town, the industry and the scenery. When possible, he adds memories of what the area was like 20 years previous. When he does not have specific memory, he includes data that reflects the cities evolution from often bustling centers of industry to desolate abandoned cities. Kozol, through his exposition is able to illustrate his text without the use of pictures.
Insights from Kozol’s career as a professional in education for 20 years and his description of education history from 1954 to 1991 both further support his argument as well. His last chapter goes into great detail on the funding of public education, as well as, the Supreme Court decisions and dissentions, which again, challenge the reader to answer questions that are tough. How can a system that allows injustices like the one below be continued? This system allowed Alamo Heights, a 99% Caucasian populated school funded at $3,600/pupil by property taxes to receive most of the states additional funding under the state’s equalizing education law, while in the same state Edgewood, a 99% minority school that was funded at just $128/pupil (Kozol, ,1991). Alamo Heights is just one example given in this chapter, but it illustrates the manipulation of the system to keep the playing field of education uneven. Kozol’s ability to succinctly describe the institutionalization of the funding inequalities and the defense of such polices via a local control defense is impressive.
I believe that Kozol is successful in supporting the assertion that the inequalities are racially influenced. By looking at the funds offered to schools in 3 different regions of the country where that least money per pupil is spent at schools that are 95% or more black and the schools with the most money spent per pupil, consistently 2 times or more than the lowest funded, are predominantly 95% white even when comparing within in the same city (Kozol, 1991). These insights and descriptions allow the reader to incorporate yet another lens or view of the inequalities. This book was written in 1991 and was based on data that was collected from 1988-1991. Unfortunately, it seems that not much has changed for the better.
Funding disparity issues have not been solved and many states still fund education based on property taxes. In the Atlanta Journal Constitution, dated March 13, 2006, Bob Kemper tells of a school in Dillon, South Carolina that is suing the state for more funding. His article includes a passage that sounds exactly like something Kozol would have seen on his visits to inner city schools and their various states of disrepair, Kemper states,
The auditorium at J.V. Martin Junior High School is dangerously
deteriorated that these students are forbidden to use it. A trailer classroom
out back is close enough to the railroad tracks that the teacher can’t teach
when trains roar by…maintenance just bricked up 3 rotting windows in…(a)…class because…parts were too hard to come by (Kemper, A1).
What is most disturbing about Kemper’s article is that the supreme court of South Carolina felt that the buildings described above did meet the states requirement for “minimally adequate” education, which protected in South Carolina (Kemper, 2006). Race is also an issue in this case.
Kozol describes the inequalities in his book as worse than an uneven playing field. He notes that if a game is “fixed” you can play it again. Our children only get one chance at education and once they are “grown” there is not an opportunity to do it again (Kozol, 1991). Fifteen years after this book was published, we are still facing the same disparity in funding, and another generation has grown up without opportunity or equality. If Kozol’s numbers hold up to scrutiny and I believe they do, we can estimate that half of the children in our poorest neighborhoods have not only grown up, but also dropped out, in those 15 years, as most states continue to rely on property taxes to fund education. Kozol at one point in his text suggests that it may in fact be a healthier decision for students to drop out, than to complete an education where their spirits are drained and their hope destroyed. Hence the educational inequalities are still present and in my opinion, they are indeed, still savage.
In the last chapter, entitled, the Dream Deferred, Kozol (1991), the dream he is saying is deferred, refers to Martin Luther King’s dream of desegregated schools. Kozol ends the book with a characteristic narrative where he transports and challenges the reader at the same time. He describes a scene he sees when standing on the side of the Ohio River.
“…struck by the sheer beauty of this country…Surely there is enough for everyone…It is a tragedy that these good things are not more widely shared. All our children ought to be allowed a stake in the enormous richness of America. Wether they were born to poor Appalachians or to wealthy Texans, to poor black people in the Bronx or to rich people…they are all quite wonderful and innocent…and we soil them needlessly (p. 233).
I agree we do soil them by providing a minimally adequate education. James Anderson states that “this study is…of the quality of prize-winning books” and I concur. It should become required reading for students of education (Anderson, 1993). I also believe it should become required reading for students and parents of privilege and power, principals, PTAs but especially for the college educated and the wealthy as they are the audience I believe Kozol was writing to. Those in power have the ability to put civility back into our education system and stop the savagery, but they first have to acknowledge the brutality of the system, accept that these disparities are not isolated occurrences and accept their roles as caretakers for all our nation’s children, not just their own.

Our country has so much to be ashamed of when it comes to public education, especially the education of poor children. Kozol always finds a way to highlight to horrible things we allow to happen without diminishing the people he writes about. Amazing Grace is still my favorite of his books, but Savage Inequalities is a close second.

I couldn't put it down...because I was so disturbed by our public education system. I don't want my children attending such schools. I don't want ANY children attending such schools. It's such a monumental problem and every small effort made to improve conditions marginalizing minorities and the poor even more. Frustrating.

An intense study revealing the disparities of education between the haves and have nots. Anyone who say money is not part of the answer to educational inequality is ridiculous.

I had to read this book in high school..i remember not being able to stop reading certain parts and reading what was not required of me. sad and interesting

Reveals and totally illustrates the vast inequality of our educational system and how caste systems are maintained by the very system that is supposed to give equal footing for all Americans.