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Divided and UnequalFayzah YahyaDr. PiliawskyEHP 36005 March 2014Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said that "all of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have equal opportunity." As true as his words may be, that is not the reality of how the education system views all students. In some parts of the U.S, opportunity to a quality education is available; in other parts, however, opportunity does not exist at all let alone an education. The main issue is that there exists a gap in school funding between urban and suburban schools across America. Because school funding is based on property taxes, a student's worth is based on where they live. This means that a student who lives in a suburban school is more likely to be worth more than a student in an inner-city. In addition to the gap in school funding, many forms of racism prevail. In the book titled Savage Inequalities: Children in America's schools (1991), Jonathan Kozol describes these themes of racism through his tours of different schools located both in inner-cities and the suburbs. Through his exploration of inner-city and suburban schools, Kozol discusses institutional, environmental, and psychological racism which are present in communities and schools that are disproportionately people of color whom are of a lower class.Firstly, Kozol discusses the theme of institutional racism throughout his book. Institutional racism is public policies and social arrangements that appear to be neutral and fair on the surface but have a discriminatory result, outcome, or effect. Kozol finds evidence of this racism in many urban schools which receive low funding per student and lack the proper resources to provide a well-rounded education to the students. Fiscal inequalities are the conclusion that most urban schools come down to in regards to low performance. Suburban schools have the money to run a school due to the funding that comes from local property taxes. “And even though poor communities place high priority on education and tax themselves at higher rates than do the affluent communities, they still are likely to end up with far less money for each child in their schools” (p. 55). Another form of institutional racism is steering where ethnic minorities are shown homes only in neighborhoods of a similar ethnic population. This leads to drawing a red line around neighborhoods and determining who will be in them or not. Another theme that Kozol discusses is environmental racism which is a variation of institutional racism. Environmental racism is the phenomenon that businesses that pollute air and water can locate in communities which are disproportionately people of color because those populations do not possess political cloud to prevent that. In many, if not all urban schools and communities mentioned in the book, health hazards exist in different extremes. For example, some communities have no regular trash collection, supermarkets, theatres, or parks but have a great number of liquor stores and factories. It is mentioned that “East St. Louis has some of the sickest children in America” due to the “sewage running in the streets, air that has been fouled by the local plants, the high lead levels noted in the soil, poverty, lack of education, crime, dilapidated housing, insufficient health care, and unemployment” (p. 20). These health hazards affect the performance of the students who barely have a chance to go to school at all leading them to psychological despair.Psychological racism is the hopelessness that students in inner-city schools feel. As a result of being surrounded by death, decay, destitution, crime, unsanitary conditions, and unsupportive people, students in inner-city schools tend to become hopeless resulting in a high drop-out rate. Kozol interviews many students in inner-city schools who give their opinion on the quality of their education and what had happened to their classmates as a result. A student named “Rosie speaks of sixth grade classmates who had babies and left school.” A boy named “Victor speaks of boys who left school during eighth grade” and who knows where they ended up. (p. 106) Surprisingly, most of the students interviewed are well aware of how low their quality of education is and understand where they stand in terms of a future in higher education. Overall, the book was eye-opening as well as thought-provoking. Kozol deserves a pat on the back for actually taking the initiative of exploring public schools in America and giving the readers different themes to ponder about. As for the methodology of the book, it is indeed sound. The ideas, procedure and methods Kozol uses to compare urban and suburban schools are valid. Through his detailed description of the schools, the interviews with students from different sides and questioning of community members and residents, Kozol was able to bring to life the situation at hand. The schools in the book may not be representative of all the schools in the middle but that is alright. The point was to only compare the worst and the best. The schools in the middle are obviously in good shape compared to the worst schools described in the book. That is why there is no need to include any schools in the middle. Kozol even explains that “the focus of this book is on the inner-city schools.” He acknowledges the fact that there exist mainly white poor, suburban districts and also isolated rural districts but the nature of the poverty in the rural districts is different. What he was aiming for was to describe the conditions of the urban system which are “often adjacent to the nation’s richest districts, and this ever-present contrast adds a heightened bitterness to the experience of children” (p.74). People need to see and understand what is going on with urban and suburban schools and why there is a gap between them. Furthermore, the analysis of conditions in America’s schools is accurate. Kozol does a good job of telling it like it is without trying to hide anything. The urban schools have it rough all around and one cannot exaggerate about their conditions because they are naturally exaggerated. Being located in a polluted and corrupted area cut off from the suburbs is enough exaggeration as it is. While the suburbs enjoy a clean and well-kept environment, the urban schools are left with the remains. This type of gap between urban and suburban schools still exists today which only supports the argument that Kozol did not exaggerate. There are schools today which are in the best of shape and there are others which are fighting to keep their students from dropping out. The inequality in educational funding is a reality and it is ignorant people who may say that Kozol is exaggerating the conditions in the book. It is they who were fortunate enough to attend a clean, safe, functional school and are denying that anyone else has had it any different. As far as Kozol’s proposed solution of equal funding goes, it is not only unfeasible and unworkable, but also near impossible. Because school funding relies mostly on property taxes, those in charge won’t have it otherwise. Education used to be a priority in Michigan long ago but that is not the case anymore. It seems that policy makers are more focused on funding the military, prisons and supporting large corporations. Education is not the priority because if it was, all schools in the U.S. would have equal funding and not one school would have to end up like the urban schools described by Kozol and the ones that exist today. Combined state and local revenues are obviously lower in higher-poverty districts than in lower-poverty districts and the federal revenues don’t make a difference.The overall writing style of the book is effective and not in any way manipulative. Kozol divides the book into sections where a different location is discussed. Within the sections, Kozol describes the conditions of an urban school and compares it to a suburban school. His descriptive writing allows the reader to imagine the poor conditions found in urban schools and also the perfect conditions found in suburban schools. His intention is not manipulate but rather to educate the public on the disparity in school funding. Pointing out the differences between schools is one way to expose what is really going on with school finance. Kozol is not trying to unfairly influence the readers. He is merely describing the reality of public schools in America and it is the reader’s choice on what to think. My pre-college education does not resemble Kozol’s inner city or suburban models of schooling—my schooling lies in the middle. I attended a charter school, Universal Academy, located in Southwest Detroit. Southwest Detroit is made up of working class residents from several different minority groups and a small percentage of Caucasians. My school was not too bad and not too good. It had classrooms, functional bathrooms, a playground and a good amount of technological resources. However, it did not contain a gymnasium, an auditorium, a sports field, AP classes, programs and diversity. Most of the students were Arab American with only a few African Americans, Mexicans and Caucasians. It seemed white people who lived in the area were more attracted to schools in the suburbs and would send their children to schools outside of Detroit. Other than that, the community was not too bad in terms of crime, poverty and pollution because the residents were hard working folks who shared the same values. A specific, ideal proposal that I would recommend to rectify the Savage Inequalities in public schools that Kozol describes is funding schools equally if not, provided with extra funding. If schools are funded equally or provided with extra funding based on their needs, then the disparity in school finance would not exist. The U.S, in comparison with other developed countries, is the only country that funds education based on local wealth. Other European countries make sure that every school is funded properly. This is, however, something that is only a model of an ideal school system which will not occur. A more practical proposal is to offer busing to urban residents to send their children to suburban schools. Another practical proposal is to provide jobs to urban, poverty-stricken families so parents can be able to move out of the area as soon as they are in good shape. If the government is not going to fund the schools that are in most need of the money, then those families should be provided with a way out and given opportunities. Thus, the book Savage Inequalities: Children in America's schools is a book that tackles down the themes of institutional, environmental, and psychological racism that is found in inner city public schools. Kozol describes the effects that occur as a result of unequal funding of schools where inner-city students end up losing hope in obtaining a quality education while suburban students have it all. It is extremely important for policy makers to acknowledge the problems that exist with school funding. The U.S. should follow the steps of those developed countries that fund each school equally or provide extra funding where needed. No student should have to attend a school that lacks quality. The opportunities that are given to white students in the suburbs should also be given to African Americans and Hispanics in the inner-cities. No child is more important than another and “all children are capable of learning” (p. 85). ReferencesKozol, J. (1991).?Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools. (1st ed., pp. 1-233). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. ................
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