Revolting

The gap between poor and rich schools in the United States is perpetuated through government sanctioned inequality, and defended by the rich to protect their claim to their rightful liberty, or what Kozol calls in his book Savage Inequalities, “…the extra edge their children…enjoy" (171). This “extra edge” is thousands of dollars more per child, current textbooks, smaller class sizes, technology, safe and modern buildings with working facilities, qualified teachers, and enrichment classes like art and music. While redistribution of funds has been fought for to give children in poorer districts the same edge (i.e. toilet paper, textbooks, working sewage, academic resources etc.), it is rebutted bitterly by those in wealthier districts. Kozol reports from his research, “The fulfillment of the dream of equity for the poor districts, says the New York Times, is seen by richer districts as a ‘nightmare’” (171). The richer districts fear that redistributing the resources would make all schools mediocre rather than excellent. In this case, the happiness of the few rests upon the misery of the many. The government sides with the rich.

It is logical since the government is the rich. The government allocates the funds and all too often turns a blind eye to the gross inequality between school districts. The government demands that children attend school, which, unless they are wealthy enough to enjoy private education, is the school in their district. Kozol makes the implications of attending a poor school district clear when he states, “Thus the state, by requiring attendance but refusing to require equity, effectively requires inequality. Compulsory inequity, perpetuated by state law, too frequently condemns our children to unequal lives” (56). Their “unequal lives” stretch far beyond the school yard, if there even is a school yard. Woefully under prepared for college as a result of the watered down curriculum and barren environment, they are offered classes on how to work at McDonalds. The overcrowding in poor schools leaves them without academic advising, and many, to the relief of their teachers, drop out for lack of direction. Why should they care about their lives? No one else does.

Thus, many of these children with their unequal lives end up as a drain on society. One lost child will cost the government tens of thousands of dollars to house him in a prison cell. The government that protested equity of finances for his education is now paying twice that to clean up the “problem” they created. Unfortunately, they herald him as an example of how useless it is to throw money away on people like him: Children in poor school districts.
Unless there is equity, there can be no liberty. They cannot exist apart.

Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. Crown Publisher Inc., New York, NY. 1991.