Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities

Savage Inequalities is a great book that gives insight on the imbalance of school funding around the nation between 1988 and 1990. Jonathan Kozol writes of his travels to thirty different neighborhoods across six states. These schools range from the poorest to some of the wealthiest in the state. How can there be such a wide disparity of conditions in a country that claims equal opportunity for all? Kozol quickly comes to the realization that poor children are not given an equal opportunity at education compared to wealthier districts. He says on page eighty-three that the “Denial of the ‘means of competition’ is perhaps the single most consistent outcome of the education offered to poor children in the schools of our large cities…” (Kozol, …show more content…
The first two P.S. 261 and P.S. 79, are schools similar to the poor schools in chapter one. The third, P.S. 24, receives more money because of property values are higher in that area. This school is clean and kept up. The disparity between the schools shows that schools receive around $6000 per student if property values are worthless and around $11,000 per student if the property values are rather expensive. This coupled with seeing the poor schools shows that learning rarely happens within the poorer schools. Kozol also mentions that 90% of the male jail prisoners are former public school drop-outs. The incarcerated inmate cost the city nearly $60,000 every year. It would be cheaper to keep these students in school and give them a proper education in high school so they will not …show more content…
One idea is that rich parents should not have the right to give their children a better education within the public school system. In Washington, D.C. Kozol sees more of the same in funding inequalities. The wealthy blame the background and home life of the students in poor schools for their inability to succeed. However, Kozol’s interviews with the poor school tells that the poor know it is all about the money if learning is to happen within any school. This is a national issue within our education system but what about globally. Do richer countries have an obligation to help the poorer countries within the realm of education? I think they do. Countries have their own way of educating their young. The United States educates all children regardless of status. United States education has a lot of areas that need to be worked on according to Kozol, but do remember that education within the United States incorporates all children. When looking at poorer countries, I believe that the United States should help educate those children who are less fortunate. However, it should not be the United States alone. There should be other countries involved. Learning how to read and write is for the good of the world for without communication we lose touch with other cultures. These different cultures help make multicultural education more of a reality. Kozol may have been talking about the national