The Shaming of America

Last July, when I was in New York City taking courses at Columbia, I was invited to sit in on a lecture by the education writer Jonathan Kozol. Kozol has long been an advocate for those students - fundamentally poor, mostly urban, and overwhelmingly black and Hispanic - who lack the political capital to be heard.

In his previous books, the most devastating of which he titled Savage Inequalities, he visited a variety of inner city schools giving eloquent voice to students, teachers, and administrators who struggled to learn, to teach, and to lead in woefully inadequate schools, overcrowded classes, using outdated textbooks, and competing for ever-dwindling economic resources.

In his talk, Kozol discussed his newest book, The Shame of a Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. The audience consisted of public school superintendents from all over the country, and Kozol didn't tell them anything they already didn't know. He talked about the inequalities in the American educational system and the children who were being left behind. Kozol was passionate, if a bit strident, but he made a compelling case.

I was back at Columbia last weekend, and I picked up The Shame of a Nation for the red-eye home. Kozol's book is a devastating critique of our society, one which has tacitly endorsed the "re-segregation" of American cities and schools.

As the title suggests, Kozol makes the case that there are two societies in the United States: the haves and the have-nots. The haves have choices - where to live and where to go to school. The have-nots don't have choices - they live where it's cheapest, and they go to school where they live.

Due to education funding formulas based on property taxes, the better schools in America tend to be in wealthier communities. And since per- pupil spending correlates positively with student achievement, it's not surprising that students do better in wealthier communities. Unfortunately, it's also no surprise that students are whiter in wealthier communities.

So the students with more resources get more, while the black and Hispanic students with fewer resources get less and less. This vicious cycle has been exacerbated by No Child Left Behind, which has diverted much- needed state and federal funds from movements to desegregate schools or to reduce class sizes.

Kozol's indictment of the state of American education is brutal. He combines plaintive stories of dilapidated schools and innocent students with reams of cold economic and demographic facts that illustrate the trend toward a country that is being segregated into two distinct societies, one which is thriving while the other is falling farther and farther behind.

It's a grim read, and, depressingly, Kozol doesn't offer any easy solutions; in fact, he makes the point repeatedly that the educational segregation he describes is but a reflection of our segregated society.

The hope Kozol does permit himself is based on the humanity of individual classrooms, on the small miracles that are performed every day by teachers. However, though teachers do work daily miracles, they have never had much success in serving as political advocates for their charges.

Kozol concludes that until we force our politicians and our judges to desegregate our society, some American children will continue to be left behind . . . and those children will disproportionately be black and Hispanic.

--Steve McKibben
2/4/06