Rating: 
Summary: Nobly written, but with illogical solutions. Biased.
Review: With any work of journalistic nonfiction, the reader must always remain skeptical of the author's agenda, however noble his argument might seem. An attempt must be made to read the book thoroughly, especially when the author laces his facts with his own theories and philosophical conclusions. Most importantly, however, the reader must be highly aware and must recognize clearly the rhetorical ability of the author, particularly if that author happens to be an experienced journalist, like our friend Jonathan Kozol.Upon finishing Savage Inequalities, I was thoroughly depressed by the information that had been given to me. The hazardous learning environments represented in his analysis came as a complete shock and I found myself continually disgusted with the level of civility offered to these young children. I must admit, I was hooked for a while, completely involved in Kozol's argument and grossly interested in his methodology for explanation. But, I soon caught myself. His rhetorical use of dry, hyper-simplistic language and the overly repetitious nature of his argument brought about flashing caution signs in my mind. Where this technique of factual argumentation will often work with the poorly educated reader, the captivated social enthusiast, or the eager Kozol fan, it wasn't working for me. And when those yellow flags popped up, I knew there was something fishy with his use of language and repetition. Close inspection of the writing suggests he might be trying to focus the attention of the reader in a direction favorable to his thesis. In situations like these, I am quick to follow up on his information and on the other areas of the controversy that the author may have failed to mention. All of this is not to say that I didn't like the book or that I thought the author is corrupted with personal bias. In fact, I believe his quest for an educationally stable America to be incredibly courageous and exhibits high moral character. However, I am afraid that he and I disagree on the solution to the problem, and I am a little wary that his conviction in that solution may have influenced the scope of the information offered to the reader. He does a good job of laying down the facts, but I feel he stresses the negatives while ignoring the positives. Also, I got the feeling that he was slanting the representation of the facts in order to hypothesize social motivations, such as environmental racism (as depicted in the beginning), with which I completely disagree. It is MUCH more complicated than merely throwing money at the public schools. The seeds of this malfunction lay deep within human nature and in the cultural and social motivations of the nation. While some corrupt "rich, white folks" may, indeed, use their money to manipulate the media, cultural environment, etcetera, and thereby influence the motivations and aspirations of the lower classes, it is an unrealistic explanation for educational/intellectual inequalities. There will always be a few bad eggs (as Kozol repeatedly likes to show us), but their influence has little quantitative effect on the mass population of poor people. Domestic motivation will spur the momentum needed for the social/economic revolution Kozol desires. The decision for social submission has not been made for the lower class, but is made within the parents of the next generation.
Rating: 
Summary: Enlightening
Review: I'm a freshman in college and was completely unaware to the extent of the hellish conditions in these urban schools. This book is truly engrossing and should be read with tissues. You can not put it down, but that is not the only reason to read it. It is everyone's duty who lives in the US (and those who don't) to read this text, as well as his other works. It should be in every home. It expresses the selfishness of the world that we live in and exposes how cruel and ignorant we can be. This book should encourage us to help the poor children trapped in these schools and take true action. Thank you, Mr. Kozol, for your incredible honesty.
Rating:
Summary: Unequal Schools in America
Review: Kozol's book presents a world of horrible inequality among America's school children. He presents to the reader schools that are horrifying because they are poorly funded. The majority of students in these insufficient schools are poor and nonwhite. I didn't know the inquality that existed in our school system until I read this book. It was saddening to read about children with no books, barely a classroom, no heating or cooling systems, and teachers that are grossly underpaid and do not care about their students who go to school just down the street from children who have schools with every possible extra. The only difference between these children is the color of their skin and the size of their parents pocketbooks. It is truly disgusting. I hope that America is trying to fix our school system so every chid can receive the wonderful, fair educaiton that they deserve.
Rating:
Summary: The book that made me a teacher
Review: I was a sophmore in college when I read this book---and now I'm looking for a job in DC public schools--and a lot of my inspiration came from this book. Kozol does not mince words or messages-there is something terribly wrong with America's school system and its our job to change it. Please read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A landmark book that every person should read
Review: A book which anyone involved in the education system can read. With remarkable deftness and detail, Kozol presents the sad state of America's schools. While the book is now over a decade old, one would never know it after reading the book. While the example towards the end of the book get a bit repetitive, Kozol shows that North, South, East, and West, all over this country school children are not being given a fair chance to succeed because of the inadequate funding structure of American schools.
Rating:
Summary: A View from a Korean
Review: It was around 11 years ago when I first visited America. During that time, I had a chance to visit an American school in Boston that my cousin was attending. My aunt drove me there and I still remember the way to the entrance to the school. It was fall and maple leaves were brilliant on the trees beside the road. When we entered the school, I saw a school building that rather looked liked cute small-village surrounded by thick forest. Blond hair boys were playing soccer in the private playground. Next to them, ducks were hanging around in a lake. I, a student in an ordinary public school in South Korea, admired at the magnificent sight of American school. It was only 5 years later when I learned it was a private high school that only wealthy family can afford the tuition. And it was only three weeks ago when I really found out what had happened in the public education of the U.S. at the time I was visiting the private school; Savage Inequalities taught me what was going on; it was severe. A school is the first place children learn about society; however, according to Kozol, our children start to learn racism, poverty, and the ignorance of adults at the beginning of their school life. If we don¡¯t change it now, our society will be more splitter than now. This is the introduction to the essay that i am writting for my english class now. I had to read Savage Inequalities for my essay assignment(it was my duty), however I have been thought about education problems mentioned in this book for 1 month since I read this book. This book catches the reader's mind and it was almost compelling to think about American education problem . Kozol makes very successful description to the real condition of the school in America. His description on the East. St. Louis was most shocking in the entire book. However, it seems that Kozol repeates his claim and information after first chapter. Although he review the conditions of other schools, they have almost same problems as East. St. Louis(Racism and Poverty and etc...) and it sounds like he is talking same thing over and over again. I thought he could cut the 50 or 100 pages of this book which is 250 pages total. Also it is easy to read in the beginnig of the book, but in the latter part, it is difficult to read. There are may difficult thoughts and information in the end. you may also wonder if this book is still valid in 2003. This book was written in 1992. The answer is Yes, it is still valid. I did a verification project on this book and surprising thing was that the problems still exist until now. Some poor schools mentioned in this book are certainly improved, but some schools are still same. The desegregation is still far away. If you are interested in education or if you want to know what is the root of problems in society and where the problems of crime, drug, violence, ignorance, and povery comes from, then you definetely need to pick up this book. You will sure the problems come from education when you read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Money Isn't Everything
Review: Kozol is a good reporter, but two years of teaching has not made him an authority on education. The conditions of poor schools are sad and I feel sorry that the physical conditions are so bad, but Kozol's solution to poor education is throwing money at the schools, and his own examples show how wrong his solution is. In the poor schools where there are dedicated teachers, the learning is immense; in the one wealthy school in Rye, New York, the students not only do not learn anything worth knowing; their attitudes are chilling. I would rather my children should attend the East St. Louis school and get the marvelous education available there than the Rye school where the curriculum is soul-destroying. The physical environment is the least of the factors that affect one's education. President Garfield famously said that education is a great teacher on one end of a log and the student on the other. This book, though the author's agenda was quite different, proves this without a doubt.
Rating:
Summary: good, but too repetitious
Review: In the book Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol talks about the educational differences found in American schools and how significantly tragic these differences are. Kozol spent two years traveling from city to city across the United States observing how schools operate and what kind of education they provide (Kozol ix). Upon his return from his travels, he wrote the book describing all that he observed. After reading this book I felt rather lucky having the opportunity to get the education that I am currently receiving. Kozol is a good writer, but he gives too many facts which leaves you disinterested and his information is very repetitive.
One of the faults in Savage Inequalities is the repetition of information. Kozol says the same thing over and over, again and again. In the beginning of the East St Louis chapter, he introduces and discusses the problem they have with garbage and more importantly the sewage. On page seven he talks about not having any trash collection and how the chemical plants give off toxic sewage. He talks about fumes and smokestacks pouring from the plant's vents and how they are the leading cause of asthma among the children. On page seventeen he again brings up the problems with the chemical plants and their toxic emissions. He also talks about how the garbage piles up in people's front lawns and leaves the kids with health complications. Again on page thirty-seven Kozol talks about the garbage and the health conditions. Once again we hear about the contamination of land and how the children are suffering from all the pollution. I understand that Kozol is trying to get his point across but his facts are too repetitious. We read the same thing over again but in different places.
Kozol also has a problem with keeping his reader interested. A reader can go on and on until finally giving up. The book Savage Inequalities deals with educational standards among schools and the tragic dysfunctions found in them which would seem to be an interesting topic but Kozol focuses on poverty stricken schools mainly and doesn't lend the reader a variety of information to absorb. I quickly lost interest and focus in the book due to its lengthy examples and arguments. One can quickly understand the point Kozol is trying to make within the first few pages of each chapter, but he goes on with many more unnecessary examples and drags the reader forth until he is done with his arguments.
Savage Inequalities in all is a good informative book written by Jonathan Kozol and it delivers great facts about the realities of unequal education in the U.S. The book was very dramatic at times and shocking, but if failed to keep me focused. I had trouble continuing because of all the unnecessary repetitive information I found in the text, but it would be something I'd recommend to others.
Rating:
Summary: America's Schools
Review: Kozol's book is heart wrenching and very informative. It depicts the conditions of America's public schools. From the ghetto schools of East St. Louis to the ritzy schools in the suburbs of New York. The book discusses many issues like why urban schools are so poor, why the kids that attend those schools have a higher dropout rate than kids who go to school in the suburbs, the racial segregation between schools, and many other important issues. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about any of these issues. I think that Kozol does a wonderful job at explaining both sides of the spectrum. He does a fine job at supporting his argument. And he is also a very credible author. A lot of the facts and the statistics in the book still hold true today. A very fun and sometimes sad read.
Rating:
Summary: Is there "liberty and justice for all" in public education?
Review: Lining up dozens of accounts of very real and often appalling disparities in public education, Kozol makes a strong case for the urgency of change in the urban public school system. Focusing largely on examples from East St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., New Jersey, and San Antonio, the author shows how students in these poor areas are drastically underserved in school systems that truly rob them of fairness in education. Overcrowded school buildings where classes overflow into storage closets, bathrooms, and gymnasiums; dilapidated structures with leaking roofs and dysfunctional heating systems; and significant shortages of books and supplies are all common features to many of these urban public schools. Furthermore, many children have teachers that sleep during class, ignore the students, or are so overworked that they can offer no personal attention. These are but a few of the reasons why Kozol raises such harsh criticism against the public education system. Compared with bordering suburbs, where ultramodern public schools offer exceptional programs and facilities, one has to wonder how education provided and required by the government can be so unequal. Those who are quick to point to family problems as the source for poor results in urban education, or claim money is not the cure-all some would believe, ignore the abysmal learning conditions that urban children face. They certainly would not tolerate those conditions for the schooling of their own children, nor would they be likely to surrender the presumably superfluous differences in per-student spending. Certainly family problems contribute significantly to differences in a child's motivation to learn or early-childhood preparation for entering school, however this in no way means that these children should be taught under such dismal circumstances and given miniscule learning opportunities. Kozol squarely faces many of the objections to equalizing spending on public, and shows how urban public schools (which are predominantly populated by blacks, Hispanics, or other minorities) continue to be heavily segregated and unequal-- despite Supreme Court rulings decades ago, such as Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional because it was "inherently unequal" (p. 3). This is a startling and compelling book that should be read by anyone concerned with the present and future of our students in American public education.
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