Jonathan Kozol Still Separate Still Unequal Analysis

In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the apparent growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner-city schools (309-310). Kozol provides several supporting factors to his claim stemming from his research and observations of different school environments, its teachers and students, and personal conversations with those teachers and students.

“Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, describes the reality of urban public schools and the isolation and segregation the students there face today. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods.

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Although the statistics are more than 10 years out of date, the reality of America school segregation has not changed. The barely functional buildings, lack of up to date text books (or in many cases any text books), overcrowded classes, non-existent lab and computer equipment, and low paid teachers create a situation of despair that leads to a drop out rate of more than 50% in many districts. And even those who graduate are often barely literate. Kozol draws the clear link between these schools and the imprisonment of the oppressed nations who, after dropping out of a dead end education, end up locked behind bars.

In the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the situation of racial segregation is refurbished with the author’s beliefs that minorities (i.e. African Americans or Hispanics) are being placed in poor conditions while the Caucasian majority is obtaining mi32 the funding. Given this, the author speaks out on a personal viewpoint, coupled with self-gathered statistics, to present a heartfelt argument that statistics give credibility to. Jonathan Kozol is asking for a change in this harmful isolation of students, which would incorporate more funding towards these underdeveloped schools. This calling is directed towards his audience of individuals who are interested in the topic of public education (seeing that this

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools is an intense expose of unjust conditions in educating America’s children. Today’s society of living conditions, poverty, income, desegregation and political issues have forced inadequate education to many children across the country. Kozol discusses major reasons for discrepancies in schools: disparities of property taxes, racism and the conflict between state and local control. Kozol traveled to public schools researching conditions and the level of education in each school. He spoke with teachers, students, principals, superintendents and government officials to portray a clear picture of the

In this exposition "From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America 's Educational Apartheid," the writer, Jonathan Kozol, constructs his paper in light of the meetings and perception that he had with a large number of the still racially isolated schools in America and his own thoughts about the circumstances. In the initial few areas of his article, Kozol focuses on the racial issue that he saw with a large portion of the public schools that he visited, for example, the government-funded schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and so on. More than ninety percent of the students being selected in those schools are African American, Hispanic, and students of another race. Different schools that are named after extraordinary individuals, for example, MLK and Thurgood Marshall, are racially isolated schools also.

Although the statistics are more than 10 years out of date, the reality of America school segregation has not changed. The barely functional buildings, lack of up to date text books (or in many cases any text books), overcrowded classes, non-existent lab and computer equipment, and low paid teachers create a situation of despair that leads to a drop out rate of more than 50% in many districts. And even those who graduate are

In the article “Still separate, still unequal” Jonathan Kozol describes the reality of urban public schools and the segregation in education, which is still a major problem in our educational system. According to the author the main problem for minorities is money. White students can afford a good education before they enter kindergarten, while minority students are limited in what they study. For example, suburban schools, which primarily consist of white students, have better education than urban schools which primarily have African American and Hispanics. If Jonatan Kozol is right that the educational system is still separate and unequal, as I think he is, then we need to reassess the popular assumption that the educational system is the

In John Kozol’s article, Still Separate Still Unequal, Kozol aims to inform readers, mainly ones that are not familiar with the public-school system in urban areas, how exactly these public schools have not changed much from segregated times and in fact worse than times before. Kozol uses many statistics and appalling facts to get the readers to comprehend exactly how these public schools are Still Separate, and Still Unequal. Kozol states in the beginning of his essay, “…Even these statistics, as stark as they are, cannot begin to convey how deeply isolated children in the poorest and most segregated sections of these cities have become” (Kozol). This quote gives the readers an emotional connection early on in fact that the statistics he states

Many believe that racial segregation is gone, however it is more prominent than ever hidden in our society. how are segregation does not stop within the workforce. It underlies within our education system. We may not see this issue within our own community, but whenever we glance at larger cities with racial diversity, the effects are simply undeniable.The reasoning and Jonathan Kozol’s article, From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America's Educational Apartheid helps us understand Peggy mcintosh's ideas in her article: White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack. For example, the daily effects racial segregation is more powerful than once though, especially in the 21st century. Caucasian people have a pronounced upper hand within society beginning

In the beginning of Kozol’s writing he argues that segregation is an issue in our education system this does not lower but open it even wider the gap between the whites and black. “In Chicago, by the academic year 2002-2003, 87 percent of public-school enrollment was black or Hispanic; less than 10 percent of children in the schools were white. In Washington, D.C., 94 percent of children were black or Hispanic; less than 5 percent were white.” (Kozol). By this he shows us what the real issue is and that segregation could of been a main issue the united states but unfortunately it is still

School segregation can be described as the separation of students in schools based on their racial/ethnic background. For example, students from the minority ethnic group, such as African American, Native American, and Latin, would attend a school that is most likely in the city and students from majority ethnic group, such as Caucasian, would attend another school that is most likely in the suburbs. According to Logan, Minca and Adar (2012), the issue of separating students based on racial/ethnic background is important because it places minorities in disadvantaged schools. These school are typically characterized by having inexperienced staff and administrators, and having test scores that land in the 30th percentile (Logan et al., 2012). This can also have an impact on the opportunities that student’s have to learn the course content. It can include the use of tutors, and after school homework clubs. Schmidt, Burroughs, Zoido and Houang (2015) explored the link between socioeconomic status and opportunity to learn. They found that there is a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and the opportunity to learn and that the more opportunities a student has to learn, the better the outcome (Schmidt et al., 2015) Gamoran, Barfels, and Collares, A.C. (2016) also found that opportunity to learn is impacted by the racial composition of the institution. They found that schools that are composed of mainly Caucasian students have more

“If the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent ninety percent of our nation society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child’s curriculum is greatly being curtailed” (1).In the fifties and sixties the civil rights movement along with help of organization like the NAACP fought racial segregation, because blacks were not equal to their white brothers and sisters. African-Americans schools were usually undermined to white schools throughout America history. African-Americans were considered privileged if they received an education or could comprehend the reading and written language of society. Segregation of children in schools has a detrimental effect