Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future due to the vastly underequipped, understaffed, and underfunded schools that exist in the poorer areas of the country. Between and , Kozol visited schools in all parts of the country, including Camden, New Jersey; Washington, D. Louis, Missouri. Kozol found that the amount of money school districts spend on each student varies dramatically between wealthy and poor school districts.
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Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future due to the vastly underequipped, understaffed, and underfunded schools that exist in the poorer areas of the country.
Between and , Kozol visited schools in all parts of the country, including Camden, New Jersey; Washington, D. Louis, Missouri. Kozol found that the amount of money school districts spend on each student varies dramatically between wealthy and poor school districts. In poorer school districts, students may lack basic supplies and school buildings are often in a state of disrepair. Kozol argues that underfunded schools contribute to higher dropout rates in poorer school districts and that funding between different school districts should be equalized.
Racial and Income Inequality in Education In his visits to these schools, Kozol discovers that black and Hispanic schoolchildren are isolated from white schoolchildren and are shortchanged educationally. Racial segregation is supposed to have ended, so why are schools still segregating minority kids? In all of the states he visited, Kozol concludes that real integration has declined significantly and education for minorities and poor students has moved backward rather than forward.
He notices persistent segregation and bias in poorer neighborhoods as well as drastic funding differences between schools in poor neighborhoods versus more affluent neighborhoods. The schools in the poor areas often lack the most basic needs, such as heat, textbooks and supplies, running water, and functioning sewer facilities.
For instance, in an elementary school in Chicago, there are two working bathrooms for students and the toilet paper and paper towels are rationed. In a New Jersey high school, only half of the English students have textbooks, and in a New York City high school, there are holes in the floors, plaster falling from the walls, and blackboards that are cracked so badly that students cannot write on them. Public schools in affluent neighborhoods did not have these problems. It is because of the huge gap in funding between rich and poor schools that poor schools are faced with these issues.
Kozol argues that in order to give poor minority children an equal chance at education, we must close the gap between rich and poor school districts in the amount of tax money spent on education. The Lifelong Effects of Education The outcomes and consequences of this funding gap are dire, according to Kozol. As a result of the inadequate funding, students are not simply being denied basic educational needs, but their future is also deeply affected.
There is severe overcrowding in these schools, along with teacher salaries that are too low to attract good teachers. To Kozol, the nationwide problem of high school dropouts is a result of society and this unequal educational system, not a lack of individual motivation. In , The New York Times reported on an analysis by researchers of approximately million student test scores.
The researchers found inequalities between wealthier school districts and poorer ones, as well as inequalities within school districts.
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
It is based on his observations of various classrooms in the public school systems of East St. In his visits to these areas, Kozol illustrates the overcrowded, unsanitary and often understaffed environment that is lacking in basic tools and textbooks for teaching. He cites the large proportions of minorities in the areas with the lowest annual budgets, despite the higher taxation rate on individuals living in poverty within the school district. Kozol cites various historical cases regarding lawsuits filed against school districts in East Orange , Camden , Irvington and Jersey City in which judges have sided with the children and concerned locals in a given district instead of adhering to state law concerning the taxation and distribution of funding.