Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

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Summary: Inequality in the Public Education System
Review: In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol includes the perspectives of federal and state employees, local administrators, teachers, and students to craft a comprehensive look at the public education system in America and its glaring inequalities.
Kozol does a wonderful job of getting at the structural problems with public education and showing that simple answers like `poorer communities just do not care as much about education' are unfounded and incorrect. He confronts this pervasive notion that parents in wealthy communities somehow want more for their children than those in the poorest communities in America. Kozol quotes an article in Town and Country that identifies one of the affluent suburban schools that he studies as "a striking example of what is possible when citizens want to achieve the best for their children" (66), which seems to suggest that parents in poorer communities do not want the best for their children or are somehow unsupportive as a community. Kozol clearly disproves this when he notes that poor communities often tax themselves at "several times the rate of an extremely wealthy district" in order to better finance their schools for their children. The problem, he suggests, is deeper and lies with the very way in which we fund our schools.
In a well articulated argument, Kozol criticizes the funding of education by local property taxes, which guarantees that our poorest students receive the poorest education. Juxtaposing the conditions of the nation's poorest urban schools with the conditions of the affluent suburbs that border them, he highlights the great disparity between the two, and by demonstrating how intimately race and poverty are intertwined, he shows how black and Latino children are consistently underserved in America's education system.
An interesting position that runs throughout Savage Inequalities has to do with the psychology of unequal treatment. Like in the ruling for the historic court case Brown vs. Board of Education, Kozol looks at the psychological effect of inferior treatment. By interviewing students as well as with the teachers that observe them on a daily basis, he shows that children notice when they are being shortchanged, when they are being denied the resources, buildings, and teachers other children have. This damages them psychologically and they quickly begin to see themselves as having little value and often give up on themselves. Basically, he is saying that by not providing education adequately for an entire segment of our population, we are in effect saying that we do not care about our nation's children. While this may be a bit extreme, his point is well taken. If we believe our children, collectively, to be valuable then we should care for them.
Given the administration's stance on school choice and the No Child Left Behind Act, Kozol makes a relevant argument about school choice and how reliance on market mechanisms simply would not benefit impoverished children who are not informed of their choices and are consistently given the message that they are not wanted at these "schools of choice."
Kozol's one fault is that he brings the vast problems of the American public school system to light without offering a comprehensive plan to improve it. Kozol suggests that the way that we fund our schools should be altered and that poorer schools need more funding, but while this is true, his suggestion is too simple. Giving more funding to impoverished districts still will not deal with the segregation problem that faces American schools.


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Summary: "Savage Inequalities" a Must-Read
Review: Have no doubt about it--Jonathan Kozol's book, Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, will change the way you think about the public education system and society in general. If you are looking for a light, easy read, this is not the book for you. Savage Inequalities will make you angry; it will make you upset; it will make you want to change the way society works.

From the very first page, Kozol seeks to anger the reader by illuminating the injustices inherent in America's public school system. Kozol's arguments are based on the assumption that public school is supposed to be an equalizing force in the U.S.; the government guarantees a free education to every child, and legislates that each child attends school. According to Kozol, this is enough to make most Americans feel like the `playing field' is equal in society. However, his research into statistics about schools and his observations of schools in various parts of the country show that the public school system does not work how it is supposed to. Kozol's research makes it clear that the drastic inequality in education both reflects and perpetuates the inequality in society.

Kozol's arguments are based on first-hand observational research in schools around the country. These firsthand accounts are particularly convincing. Kozol takes the reader on a tour of schools in different cities and surrounding suburbs. Through Kozol's illustrative writing, the reader feels that she herself is experiencing the impressive (bordering on excessive) resources in schools in the rich suburbs, which starkly contrast with the decrepit buildings and inadequate resources in the schools in the poor districts.

Kozol is most effective when he speaks directly about the children in poor schools, or when he lets the children speak for themselves. For example, when Kozol asks a little girl in the fifth grade in a D.C. school what she would do if someone gave moneyh to her school, she responds that she would want to plant flowers. She says, "It's like this. The school is dirty. There isn't any playground. There's a hole in the wall behind the principal's desk. What we need to do is first rebuild the school. Another color. Build a playground. Plant a lot of flowers... Make it a beautiful clean building. Make it pretty. Way it is, I feel ashamed" (181). Words like this, straight from the mouth of an innocent 11-year old, are extremely effective because they appeal straight to the heart of the reader.

At times, Savage Inequalities can get repetitive. Kozol tends to repeat main points in different chapters, and his use of statistics at times can become tiring. Fewer statistics would probably make the ones that he uses more valuable. However, in the big picture of the book, the repetition of main points serves to drive home his purpose.

The conclusions that Kozol draws about education contributing to a caste system in America, and education accomplishing nothing but the task of preparing children for life in whichever segment of society they are born into, may seem extreme. However, since they are backed up with Kozol's first-hand observations of so many schools, as well as interviews with students, teachers, and administrators around the country, make the reader seriously consider his extreme point.

Kozol makes a convincing argument that because of the way that schools are funded at the local level, the school system is inherently inequal. Through his interviews with children and descriptions of failing schools, the reader sees why and exactly how this inequality is unfair to a large segment of society. This powerful and moving book should be read by all Americans.