Savage
Inequalities
By Jonathan
Kozol
Objectives
•Understand Kozol’s depiction of the inequalities of education
within the poorest schools, and the wealthier suburban
communities.
•Consider educational opportunity between schools when Kozol
completed his study.
•Consider the types of inequalities and issues exist between
Chicago public schools and those of the surrounding area.
•Better understand the basis of school funding and implications of
this system.
The Facts
Between 1988 and 1990, Kozol visited
schools in approximately 30 neighborhoods
and found that there was a wide disparity in
the conditions between the poorest schools
(inner cities) and the schools in the wealthy
suburban communities.
Based on his observations he concluded that
many poor children receive an inferior
education.
Kozol examines how these
unequal findings of schools
relates to social class divisions,
institutional and environmental
racism, isolation and alienation of
students and staff. Within poor
schools there is psychical decay
of the buildings and health
conditions of students.
Kozol has visited many different school districts of both suburban and
urban areas. He found that there was a wide difference in those
districts. The schools in the urban areas are looked towards more as
inferior towards the suburban schools and are in a sense discriminated
against. He was at a state of disbelief when he witnessed what has
gone on in the two different districts.
How can this be possible in
all school districts?
How can people let things
drag to such a level?
Is it possible to make things
right?
Do people even notice this
happening?
Is it too late to change what
is happening?
Questions raised by Kozol
•Does this really happen in America?
•How did things get so bad?
•What can we do to fix this?
•What about equal opportunity for all?
•With such inferior education, would students
be given equal opportunity from the start?
In his book, he discusses graphic events that have
taken place in urban districts. Poverty and education,
the cause in affect which makes them unequal
Horrible learning environments
Suburban districts get more than enough “luxuries” than
the urban districts (new computers, new text books)
Over crowded classrooms
Guards stationed in the lobby of the school
Some of the parents make no demands
Discussion Question
Draw conclusions on the inequalities
between the two districts
Give examples from personal experiences
Savage Inequalities
The descriptions of white flight and
industrialization are at the heart of Kozol’s
Savage Inequalities.
White Flight
As incomes rise, minorities begin to move into
predominately white neighborhoods.
Whites, seeing the neighborhood “changing,”
move out, taking their “clout” with them.
In order to move quickly, people often sell for
less than they would otherwise.
With lower priced housing available, it is
easier for minorities to move into the
neighborhood.
White Flight
As prices are driven lower, the wealthier of the
minorities begin to move out.
The cycle continues until the neighborhood is so
undesirable that property has little or no value.
As property values goes down, so do the taxes
generated by that property.
With the property tax base gone, there is little
money to support the schools.
Industrialization
Very often, the companies buy up low value
property thus helping to solve two problems for
the municipality: (1) in the short-term, removal
of a slum or near slum, and (2) in the long-term,
the generation of tax dollars from that property.
Industries typically seek to keep their tax
burden as small as possible and do not often
support tax increases for schools in their area.
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
Martin Luther King, Jr., regarded as the most
influential and central figure of the Civil
Rights Movement, attempted to organize,
demonstrate and institute change in Chicago
toward the end of his life. Having primarily
worked for social change in the Jim Crow
South, he would find Chicago to be even
more difficult to enact social change.
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
Begins his analysis of the South Side and North Lawndale, Chicago, where
a “color tax” and one single bank exists; 58% unemployment as of 1980;
white flights and the desertion of industry; gangs and youth fatality; MLK
lived in the city but the city demolished it once he moved; 100 infants die a
year in such neighborhoods (43);
unsympathetic teachers; worn textbooks; the high school for this district has
a graduation rate of 38% - 3 of 12 of the kindergarteners he visits ends in
prison; for nonwhite students, the eight grade graduation (in Chicago with no
junior high school) is the equivalent of the high school graduation in the
suburbs; Mrs. Hawkins – described as an effective teacher in adverse
conditions, breaks into small groups, “departments,” kids are constantly
engaged or busy– and in close contact, working after school hours;
the singing of religious songs is curious (50-51) – a way of Kozol describing
the desperation?
Such conditions contribute to a high drop out rate, which Kozol puts at 50%
(54). 10% of school age population dropout before high school, which would
put the rate around 60%. In some schools, the dropout rate approaches
90% (58). 27% percent of h.s. graduates read at or below an eighth grade
level (58)
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
Kozol suggests that most people agree that
“pedagogic problems in our cities are not chiefly
matters of injustice, inequality or segregation,
but of insufficient information about teaching
strategies” (51). For Kozol, the problems that
plague our schools are systems and structural,
it is not a problem caused by the teachers’
pedagogical issues. The number of teachers
over 60 in Chicago is twice that of teachers
under 30. On a given day, 5700 teachers in
classrooms have no teacher (52).
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
Differences between equity and equality. Equity
demands that more resources are needed to address
disparity, not simply equal funding. Suburbs, on
average, spend over one and a half times more on its
students (54). Kozol also looks into the issue of
property taxes and school funding. Wealthy suburbs,
with wealthier land and property, are receiving higher
returns due to federal subsidies. This often puts
poorer communities in a position to tax themselves at
higher rates, which still yields unequal results (54-55).
Especially in a city, which holds a high concentration
of tax-free institutions, the property tax will not yield
suburban results.
Discussion Question
•
Have you ever felt that when a class was
divided it was to your advantage?
•
Do you think your school district was or is
unequal to others?
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
The property tax is the largest proportion of school
funding. While state funding is meant to equalize the
spending, this is rarely the case. In Illinois, the
wealthiest district will spend nearly 5 times as much
on its students (57). “About injustice,” Kozol writes,
“most poor children in American cannot be fooled.”
The gaps in funding, curriculum and resources
between New Trier and inner-city Chicago are
particularly striking: at New Trier, students read
Nietzsche, Darwin and Plato with an average class
size of 24; while at Goudy Elementary, students read
out of 15+ year old texts and are rationed paper and
no art or music programs. To compound the problem,
the high salaries found in the suburbs make it almost
impossible to keep good teachers in the city.
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
“Magnet schools” constitute a dual system of education in
Chicago, which operates essentially like a private school
system. Admissions are selective and require, at times, political
connections for entrance (59). Some also see these schools as
a compensation for whites for staying in the city. This system,
Kozol suggests, is maintained by a notion of “cultural capital” –
parents who are better education are in the know about what
type of education is legally available. This notion of cultural
capital – the education and connections needed to utilize a
choice program – directly challenges any equalizing tendencies
of any “choice” program. As Kozol points out, it appears to be
based on meritocracy, but is predetermined by class and race.
People are “prepared to see [poorer children] get their
schooling in a metal prefab in a junkyard rather than admit them
to the beautiful new school erected for their own kids” (61).
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
“Reforms” most often target superficial structures that do not
touch the suburb-city divide. Requests for more equal funding
are met with flat rebuttals. Unlikely options – such as reducing
class size or expanding early childhood programs (Head Start?)
– are not funded. One of his points is that while some funding
initiatives are passed, they are ineffective if not part of a larger
campaign to stop redlining practices, for instance.
Unfortunately, administrators are in a position of dependence
on business leaders (those who have voted to reduce funding
initially) for resources. The claim is also made that such a
dependence forces a corporate agenda/curriculum whose goal
is to “train the ghetto children to be good employees” (82). This
larger context suggests that education is inextricably linked to
race and class, or caste as Kozol sees it.
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
After describing his visits to some schools in inner city Chicago,
as well as the storied New Trier high school in a wealthy
suburb, Kozol responds to those who have urged us to] settle
for ‘realistic’ goals, by which [they] mean the kinds of limited
career objectives that seem … fitting for low-income children.
[Some business leaders, he says, have held out] truly
democratic hopes for these low-income children; but [others
have spoken] quite openly of ‘training’ kids like these for
nothing better than the entry-level jobs their corporations have
available. Urban schools, they argue, should dispense with
‘frills’ and focus on ‘the basics’ needed for employment.
Emphasis in the suburban schools . . . should necessarily . . .
focus upon college preparation.
Kozol, “Other People’s Children” in Savage Inequalities
… [A]ccording to this logic . . . [future service workers need a different . . .
order of investment than the children destined to be corporate executives,
physicians, lawyers [and] engineers. Future plumbers and future scientists
require different schooling-maybe different schools.
… Early testing to assign each child to a ‘realistic’ course of study … is also
favored. …
Inevitably this thinking must diminish the horizons and the aspirations of
poor children, locking them at a very early age into the slots that are
regarded as appropriate to their societal position. On its darkest side, it also
leads to greater willingness to write off certain children. ‘It doesn't make
sense to offer something that most of these urban kids will never use,’ a
businessman said to me. ‘No one expects these ghetto kids to go to college.
Most of them are lucky if they're even literate … Besides,’ [it follows] ‘these
bottom-level jobs exist. They need to be done. Somebody's got to do them.’
It is evident, however, who that somebody will be. There is no
sentimentalizing here. No corporate CEO is likely to confess a secret wish to
see his children trained as cosmetologists or clerical assistants. So the
prerogatives of class and caste are clear.
Implications for teaching
Shows signs of discrimination and inequalities of
the suburban and urban school districts which
make you as a teacher aware of what is taking
place
Can make observations and try to correct the
signs by having the students become more
equal to the others
Can you as a teacher figure out a way to try to
stop the inequality among students as well as
school districts?
Objectives
Understand Kozol’s depiction of the inequalities of education
within the poorest schools, and the wealthier suburban
communities.
Consider the opportunity of education between schools in
the 1990s when Kozol completed his study.
Consider the types of inequalities and issues exist between
Chicago public schools and those of the surrounding area.
Better understand the basis of school funding and
implications of this system.