Savage Inequalities: Children In America's Schools

 

Jonathon Kozol, an American writer, educator, and activist, traveled throughout America from 1988 -1990 to visit a variety of schools ranging from low to high price ranges. Kozol believed that children who couldn’t afford to live in more expensive areas were not getting the education they deserved, as most of the schools in poorer areas were understaffed, underfunded, and unprepared for classes. One of the aspects of inequality within schools that stood out to Kozol early within his trip was the educational differences when it came to white school children compared to other school children. Kozol was disturbed by the appearance of racial segregation within schools, especially since he saw this in almost every single state. Within his book, he claimed that education for poor students and minorities has become worse over time and that equality between all students was far from reality. Another obvious point of inequality within his study was segregation in poorer neighborhoods and lack of basic resources. One school that stood out to him in this category was a school in Chicago, where there were only two bathrooms in a 700 student school with very limited hygiene equipment. There are other schools where he found holes in the walls and ceilings, cracked blackboards, and many more problems that made education much more difficult for the students attending. In comparison to all of the more expensive public schools that he visited, there was an obvious lack of basic educational needs in schools within poorer neighborhoods and poorer families.  Kozol also claims that tax money is the leading cause of inequality in education for poor and minority students.

Kozol observed that all of these problems aren’t just problems for students while they are currently being educated, but are detrimental to their future long term. A large number of high school dropouts aren’t due to a lack of motivation, but an unequal educational system where some students are left in situations where they can’t learn to the best of their abilities. Again, Kozol claims that the best course of action to create equality between students is to spend more taxpayer money on poorer schools/students. 

While all of Kozol’s book was based on a study in 1990, this problem of inequality within schools hasn’t gone away today. In 2016 and even 2018, new studies proved that students in poorer school districts were getting lower average test scores than those in wealthier districts and that poorer public schools in Detroit were found to have lead in their drinking water. These recent studies show that this is still a problem that we need to take seriously, and there's still a long way to go until all students are getting the education they deserve.

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