Savage Inequalities

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Savage Inequalities

• By Jonathan Kozol

Presentation by Fred Holt, Blanca Fernandez, and
Antoinette Miller E6900 Multicultural Education
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Jonathan Kozol

• Educator
• Civil Rights Activists
• Social Activists
• Author

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Areas of focus in Savage Inequalities
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Chapter 1East St. Louis in 1989

• 98 Black (Kozol p. 7)
• 1/3 of families earn less than 7500 per year
  (Kozol p. 7)
• 75 are on welfare (Kozol p. 7)

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East St. Louis Toxic Dumping Ground?
The development of working sewage systems made
cities livable hundreds of years ago, she notes.
Sewage systems separate us from the Third
World (St Louis Health Official p.10)

• Contaminated Soil
• Toxic industries
• Hazardous Waste
• Sewages in the streets and schools
• No Waste Management system
• Lack of viable Health Care

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Poor Environment Promotes Despair and Hopelessness

• "You asked a question about Martin Luther King. 
  All that stuff about the dream means nothing to
  the kids I know in East St. Louis. So far as
  theyre concerned, he died in vain.  He was
  famous and he lived and gave his speeches and he
  died and now hes gone.  But were still here. 
  - Student, East St. Louis
• is simply the worst possible place I can imagine
  to have a child brought upThe community is in
  desperate circumstances. -Chairman of the State
  Board (Kozol p.25)

How do you encourage hope while surrounded by
trash burners, dumpsites, and enormous prisons?
Why should the children learn when their lives
are filled with unhappiness, toxicity and
ugliness?- Jonathan Kozol
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Recipe for Disaster

• Underpaid teachers
• Budget cutbacks
• Layoffs of 280 teachers. 166 cooks, 25
  teacher aides, 16 custodians and 18 painters,
  electrician, engineers and plumbers
• Lack of textbooks, supplies, aids
• Dilapidated infrastructure eats up funding

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Despair and Dropouts

• Such conditions contribute to a high drop out
  rate, which Kozol puts at 50 (Kozol p.54).
• 10 of school age population dropout before high
  school, which would put the rate around 60.
  (Kozol p.54)
• In some schools, the dropout rate approaches 90
  (Kozol p.58)
• 27 percent of high school graduates read at or
  below an eighth grade level (Kozol p.58)

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Savage Inequalities Today
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Chapter 2North Lawndale and South Side Chicago

• Placing the burden on the individual to
  break down doors in finding better education for
  a child is attractive to conservatives because it
  reaffirms their faith in individual ambition and
  autonomy. BUT TO ASK AND INDIVIDUAL TO BREAK
  DOWN THE DOORS THAT WE HAVE CHAINED AND BOLTED IN
  ADVANCE OF HIS ARRIVAL IS UNFAIR. (Kozol p.62)

• 2,100 for poorest districts compared to 10,000
  for richest districts
• Teacher salaries lower in these districts
  compared to richer districts
• Out of date textbooks and curriculum and no
  funds to replace them
• Teachers spending their own money for classroom
  necessities

Morgan Park HS
New Trier HS
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Funding for Education

• Based mainly on property taxes
• Southside homes in 1990 average price 68,000
• Winnetka, IL homes in 1990 average price
  400,000
• Fewer students in richer districts but more
  property tax available per child
• More students in poorer districts with much less
  in property taxes per child

• Average home prices for Southside as of Dec 2010
  - 400,000
• Average home prices for Winnetka, IL as of Dec
  2010 1.8 million

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Chicago Urban School v. The Suburbs
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A Comparison

• Over 13 years - 38,000 spent on inner center
  children vs. 100,000 on children in more
  affluent areas (Kozol p.73)
• Du Sable High School
• Grad Rate 25
• Of those only 17 are in college prep classes
• 20 are in General Curriculum
• 63 in vocational classes
• Underpaid teachers average salary for low
  income/high risk areas is less than 40,000 and
  that is the high end
• Suburbs salaries average 60,000
• Under trained teachers
• Poorly equipped libraries
• Mondays and Fridays in May nearly 18,000 children
  find themselves without a teacher (Kozol p. 53)
• On average, 5,700 children in 190 classrooms have
  no teacher (Kozol p.52)

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A Comparison contd

• Academic counselor is assigned to Freshmen at New
  Trier and remain with them until they graduate
• 93 of New Trier seniors go on to 4 year colleges
• New Trier has use of 27 acres
• By the time students from Glencoe and Winnetka
  reach 6th or 7th grade their reading level is at
  or higher than the seniors in the best Chicago
  high schools. (Kozol p.65)

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Chapter 3

• Savage Inequalities of public Education in New
  York

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Riverdale , in the Northwest section of the
Bronx Home to many citys most sophisticated and
well educated families (Kozol, 84)
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The other section to the south and east is
poor, you will not see many white children
The contrast between public schools in each of
these 2 neighborhoods is obvious to any visitor
(Kozol, 84).
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The elementary school in Riverdale has windows
that are decorated with attractive brightly
colored curtains that look out on flowering
trees. (Kozol p. ) This can not compare to
Public School 79 (PS 79) where the classroom is
overly crowded and there are no
windows. Riverdale has 825 children in
Kindergarten- 6th grade, this is only ½ of what
you can find in PS 79
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Most children at Riverdale are white or Asian, if
they are hispanic or black they are usually
placed in a special class.
In PS 79 children are usually all black
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Israel, small Puerto Rico boy said People on the
outside may think that we dont know what it is
like for other students, but we do visit other
school and we have eyes and we have brains. You
cannot hide the differences. You see it and
compare (Kozol, 104)
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CHAPTER 4
Children of the City Invincible Camden, New
Jersey
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Camden, New Jersey

• Is the 4th poorest city of more than 50,000
  people in America.
• The City has 200 liquor stores and bars.
• Of the citys 2,000 public housing units, 500 are
  boarded up.

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The drive from Cherry Hill to Camden is
approximately 5 minutes. It is like a journey
between different worlds.
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• Half the children in the classroom have no
  textbooks due to the lack of funds.
• They have to use old books that are sub-grade
  appropriate.
• So I have to ask well are they three years
  smarter? Am I stupid? (Kozol, 152) (comparing
  himself to a friend from Cherry Hill who is his
  age)

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• What is impressing is that Kids get up at all
  and come to school. They are old enough to know
  what they are coming into. (Kozol, 141)
• 600 Children enter 9th grade by 11th grade there
  are only 300.

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It rains on my city but I see rainbows in the
puddles. (Kozol, 148)
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Chapter 5 The Equality of Innocence Washington,
D.C.
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When looking at studies of school finance,
questions to consider are How can we achieve
more equity in education in America? How can we
acheive both equity and excellence in education?
(Kozol p.175)
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Fiscal Inequalities Between School Districts

• In Maryland, for instance, one of several states
  in which the courts have looked at fiscal
  inequalities between school districts, an equity
  suit filed in 1978, although unsuccessful, led
  the state to reexamine the school funding system.
  When a task force set up by the governor offered
  its suggestions five years later, it argued that
  100 percent equality was too expensive. The
  goal, it said, was 75 percent equality-meaning
  that the poorest districts should be granted no
  less than three quarters of the funds at the
  disposal of the average district. (Kozol p.176)

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Washington, D.C.Two Different Worlds

• One is the Washington of cherry blossoms, the
  sparkling white monuments, the magisterial
  buildings of government, of politics and power
  (Kozol p. 181)
• Affluent neighborhoods
• Schools that receive more money and resources.

• Just a mile away, the other world is known as
  Anacostia. (Kozol p. 181)
• Schools with very little resouces and money.
• Schools with holes in the walls and ceilings.
• School flooding and rats in the cafeteria.

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DUAL SYSTEMS But one dual system (city versus
suburbs) almost inevitably creates a second dual
system (city-poor versus city-less-than-poor). So
it is that inequality, once it is accepted, grows
contagious. (Kozol p.186)
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The Importance of Nonwhite Personnel as
Administrators

• The placement of a black person as a city
  official or public school administrator serves
  three functions
• Symbolism
• Enforcement
• Scapegoats

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Chapter 6The Dream Deferred, Again, in San
Antonio

• a society in which a familys wealth has no
  relation to the probability of future educational
  attainment and wealth and station it affords. By
  this standard, education offered to poor children
  should be at least as good as that which is
  provided to the children of the upper-middle
  class. (Kozol p. 2077)

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The Foundation Program

• There is a basic formula that is in place for
  education finance
• A local tax is raised from the value of homes and
  businesses.
• In affluent areas, this is usually enough to
  operate a school. In less affluent districts,
  they levy a tax which assures that the tax burden
  on all citizens is equally apportioned..
• The state will provided funds to lift the poorer
  districts to a level equal to the richest
  district.

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Edgewood School District

• Located in San Antonio, Texas
• 96 of students are nonwhite.
• Edgewoods residents pay one the highest tax
  rates in the area.
• Edgewood spent 231 for each student whereas,
  Alamo Heights, the richest section of the city,
  was able to spend 543 on each student.

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A Class-Action Suit

• Resident Demetrio Rodriguez and other parents
  filed a class-action suit on behalf of their
  children.
• A sample of 110 Texas districts at the time
  showed that ten wealthiest districts spent an
  average of three times as much per pupil as the
  four poorest districts (Kozol p. 214)
• The federal district court in San Antonio ruled
  that Texas was in violation of the equal
  protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. This
  was appealed and reversed.

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Twenty-three years later

• Per pupil spending ranges from 2,000-19,000.
• Children still attend separate and unequal
  schools.

• Alamo heights is a part of San Antonio but
  operates as a separate system.
• Texass school funding system was found to be
  unconstitutional under state law.

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All of our children ought to be allowed a stake
in the enormous richness of America. Whether they
were to poor white Appalachians or to wealthy
Texans, to poor black people in the Bronx or to
rich people in Manhasset or Winnetka, they are
all quite wonderful and innocent when they are
small. We soil them needlessly (Kozol p. 233)