Savage Inequalities

1. Savage Inequalities By: Jonathan Kozol Presentation by: Fred Holt, Blanca Fernandez, and Antoinette Miller E6900 Multicultural Education

2. Jonathan Kozol • Educator • Civil Rights Activists • Social Activists • Author

3. Areas of focus in Savage Inequalities East St. Louis, Ill. Chicago, Ill. New York City, NY. Camden, NJ Cincinnati, OH. Washington D.C.

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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 they’re concerned, he died in vain.  He was famous and he lived and gave his speeches and he died and now he’s gone.  But we’re still here.”  - Student, East St. Louis “is simply the worst possible place I can imagine to have a child brought up…The 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

7. 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 East St. Louis High School, 2004

8. 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)

9. Savage Inequalities Today

10. 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) Morgan Park HS • $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 New Trier HS

11. 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

12. Chicago Urban School v. The Suburbs

13. 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)

14. A Comparison cont’d • 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)

15. Chapter 3 Savage Inequalities of public Education in New York

16. Riverdale , in the Northwest section of the Bronx Home to many city’s most sophisticated and well educated families (Kozol, 84)

17. 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).

18. “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

19. 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

20. Israel, small Puerto Rico boy said “People on the outside may think that we don’t 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)

21. CHAPTER 4: Children of the City Invincible: Camden, New Jersey

22. 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 city’s 2,000 public housing units, 500 are boarded up.

23. The drive from Cherry Hill to Camden is approximately 5 minutes. It is like a journey between different worlds.

24. 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)

25. 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.

26. “It rains on my city… but I see rainbows in the puddles.” (Kozol, 148)

27. Chapter 5 The Equality of Innocence Washington, D.C.

28. 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)

29. 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)

30. 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.

31. 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)

32. 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

33. Chapter 6The Dream Deferred, Again, in San Antonio “…a society in which a family’s 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)

34. 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.

35. Edgewood School District • Located in San Antonio, Texas • 96% of students are nonwhite. • Edgewood’s 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.

36. 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.

37. 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. • Texas’s school funding system was found to be unconstitutional under state law.

38. “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)