Kozol-Argument

What?  In “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, Jonathan Kozol argues that there is still segregation occurring throughout many cities in our nation.  “All people are due equal education and everything else that goes along with maintaining a healthy society.  All must have equal health-care, food, water, and environments to live in.”  But although all are supposed to be equal the quality of schools for children in poor sections of the city is in stark contrast to the quality of schools for the privileged.  The vast majority of children at these schools in poor areas are black or Hispanic.  These children have become “deeply isolated” in the “most segregated sections of these cities.” 

So What?  According to Kozol, this problem is worthy of our attention because these poorly maintained schools with few course choices preparing students for college are not only in “deeply segregated inner-city neighborhoods” but in areas where the races are mixed and the opportunity for a truly integrated public school exists.  He provides astounding evidence to back up his claim that this problem is significant.  In Plessy vs. Ferguson the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” justified segregation.  Today in many of these inner-city schools administrators have long given up the goal of attaining “equal” but instead strive for “adequate”.  As a result we have children attending schools without gardens, music and art programs, places to play, and a functional gym.  In a large high school there are only one or two functional women’s rooms that are open for students to use.  In the 1997-1998 school year, the amount spent to educate a third-grade child in a New York public school was $8,000 a year.  In contrast in a “fairly typical white suburb of New York” public education spent $12,000 a year per student and in a wealthy white suburb students received $18,000 each for their education.  Clearly the ones that benefit are the wealthy white students, the privileged, and those that suffer are the poor black or Hispanic students, the under-privileged.  “The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.”  In this case the quote refers to the education of our children.

Now What?  This evidence clearly indicates a change needs to be made.  Some changes that have been made include using a Skinnerian approach to education.  Classrooms are very rigid and structured.  Children follow hand signals used to modify their behavior and produce desired results.  Kozol argues that there are other obvious solutions that can be made to produce the same desired results.  For instance “cutting class size and constructing new school buildings or providing universal preschool.”  These are changes that can be put into place right away and can help to overcome the gap between the schools and education of the privileged and the under-privileged.  Kozol suggests that change may mean people will have to march in the streets, or that change may involve litigation and legislation.  He is clear that “these are prices we should be prepared to pay.”  A student once wrote to him and said that she and her classmates don’t have the things that he has.  Kozol is adamant that “America owes that little girl and millions like her a more honorable answer than they have received.”  Although Kozol is clear that change needs to be made and even offers suggestions as to what the actions needed to bring about change may look like, I feel he is not specific enough as to the actions that need to be taken and who needs to take them.  America is a large place, who in America specifically needs to act and what exactly do they need to do?