It's not often that one reads a book that chances his or her life. I was lucky enough to encounter one of these life-changing books, and it happens to be The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol. I won't summarize this book, because anybody who reads this blog should read the book for themself. Actually, every American (and non-American) citizen should read Kozol's book, because it contains information that everybody needs to know. In essence, he writes about how segregated and unequal American schools are. We always hear of people going over-seas to build schools for poor, innocent children who have been denied an education, but America suffers from educational inequality like any other country. Not only are schools very, very segregated (yes, segregation is still rampant in America and has gotten worse since the Civil Rights movement), but those segregated schools are in miserable condition. Again, I won't go into detail because I could never convey the true colors of what Kozol has done in his many books. I suggest you read this particular book because it's one of his most recent (published in 2005).
The hardest idea to grasp isn't that millions of poor black, white, and Hispanic kids are suffering from educational equality. What is truly amazing is that the government refuses to protect these children. The government refuses to desegregate schools and it refuses to fund rich and poor areas equally. Kozol wrote, "The majority opinion of the high court noted that, in order to bring to bear 'strict scrutiny' upon the case [the case was about a school board or possibly a parent suing the state - for not supplying sufficient funds to his child's school - or something to that extent. There were several court cases mentioned in this book; it's hard to keep them all straight. This case eventually went to the Supreme Court and was dismissed.], it must first establish that there had been 'absolute deprivation' of a 'fundamental interest' of the Edgewood children. Justice Lewis Powell wrote that education is not 'a fundamental interest' inasmuch as education 'is not among the rights afforded explicit protection under our Federal Constitution.' Nor, he wrote, did he believe that 'absolute deprivation' was at stake. 'The argument here,' he said, 'is not that the children in districts having relatively low assessable property values are receiving no public education; rather, it is that they are receiving a poorer quality education than that available to children in districts having more assessable wealth.' In cases where wealth is involved, he said, 'the Equal Protection Clause does not require absolute equality.'"
That's right - the United States Constitution doesn't promise an equal education for all, so education is unable to be protected by law, just as gays and lesbians are not protected because the Constitution is too vague. Although this Constitution of ours has done good for many, it's destroying America's youth (and gays and lesbians, but that's not part of my argument...at this particular time...) Basically, as Kozol wrote, "education, 'where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.'"
TO ALL (not some) ON EQUAL TERMS. Furthermore, this court case, a fight to get one single school district equal rights, was denied. "From that point on, with few exceptions, legal efforts to reduce or to abolish inequalities in education were restricted to state levels." What this statement means is that there is no single all-encompassing law that protects educational equality. Now it's up to each individual state to look after its schools, and it's up to each state to determine where the money goes, and, as evidence shows, the money is not being distributed fairly.
As Jon and I were discussing recently, these schools could be helped so much if they were only given sufficient funds. Granted, giving much-needed money to the dilapidated schools won't desegregate schools, but at least the children (often black and Hispanic) will have a chance to learn as much and in the same way as their rich (and often white) counterparts. Maybe if the white, middle- and upper-class communities were able to see that black and Hispanic children are able to learn as much as their children, they'll be more willing to desegregate schools. Just maybe...
Back to my first comment that money can fix so much in this dismal situation. And it's not like the money simply isn't there. Just look at how much sports stars are paid and all the million and billionaires there are. They could easily build a few hundred schools and supply them with the necessary materials to help underprivileged kids learn as much as they deserve. According to Kozol's findings, "'the top 25 percent of school districts in terms of child poverty...receive less funding than the bottom 25 percent." and "In 31 states, districts with the highest percentage of minority children also receive less funding per pupil than do districts with the fewest minority children. Thirty-five out of 48 states spend less on students in school districts with the highest numbers of minority children than on students in the districts with the fewest children of minorities."
All of the statistics that Jonathan Kozol presented were worth noting, but I chose to highlight a few in this blog: "Nationwide, from 1993 to 2002, the number of high schools graduating less than half their ninth grade class in four eyes has increased by 75 percent." The percentage of minority students graduating from high school was already low and it has increased by an astounding percentage.
Furthermore, George W. Bush (praise Allah that he is no longer president) did nothing to help. (Actually, Jonathan Kozol has been fasting for quite some time (years, perhaps, I can't remember) in his protest against No Child Left Behind. George W. Bush, you are killing a 72 year-old man. President Barack Obama, please save Mr. Kozol.)
"I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations," the president [George W. Bush] said again in his campaign for reelection [how the hell was this guy elected TWICE?] in September 2004. It's working. It's making a difference." It is one of those deadly lies which, by sheer repetition, is at length accepted by large numbers of Americans as, perhaps, a rough approximation of the truth. But it is not he truth, and it is not an innocent misstatement of the facts. It is a devious appeasement of the heartache of the parents of the black and brown and poor and, if it is not forcefully resisted and denounced, it is going to lead our nation even further in a perilous direction."
Here's another little tidbit for your reading enjoyment: "With the continuing effects of economic turndown undercutting state assistance to the local districts, even some of the less impoverished systems have been forced to such extremes as locking down their libraries for lack of funds with which to pay librarians. Full-day kindergarten in some low-to-middle-income district near my home has recently been cancelled. The only children in the district who receive full days of kindergarten now are those whose parents can afford to pay for it with private funds - this within a public system. The same undemocratic practice has been introduced in schools in Washington State, Colorado, Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, and elsewhere."
"We've got [the] money in place to fund the measurement systems,"' President Bush announced as school began two years ago. Even this was not entirely true. Many inner-city districts have been cutting back on buying education supplies because they are diverting funds to purchase test materials and test-preparation programs. Others have been forced to spend large sums of money to support a virtually new profession of 'test-checking' personnel to guard against he widespread cheating that has taken place, in Texas for example." Yeah, Texas, Mr. Bush. In Texas. It's ridiculous that much-needed money is not even being spent on "educational supplies" but on test materials. Test materials! These kids who are denied basic supplies and safe classrooms are being forced to take the same tests as everyone else who as enough money to spend on every little necessary thing and more.
As far as segregation goes, "And, despite the polls which demonstrate the large majorities of black Americans believe in integrated education and that only 20 percent of white Americans do not think it to be of serious importance, the drumbeat of opinions that are cited in much of the non-print media (virtually no integrationists are ever invited to express their viewpoints on this subject on TV) give many citizens who favor integration the impression that their own beliefs must be archaic or unique."
A heart-felt tidbit with which I heartily agree: "'White teachers and black and Hispanic teachers need to teach together. White children and black and Hispanic children need to learn together. You have to start it when they're very young, in elementary school, in kindergarten, when they're learning innocence.'"
Some hypocrisy: "'You hear them talk of 'standards' - 'national standards' - in the White House now, but when it comes to where our children go to school and how we're supposed to pay for them to have an education, it's 'a local issue.' It's 'states' rights'"
"Mr. Paige, the former education secretary, went so far a year ago [2004] as to call the National Education Association, our nation's largest teachers union, 'a terrorist organization' because it criticized the White House for refusing to deliver on the funding that it promised at the time its education bill was shepherded through Congress."
The last two paragraphs of the book which made me tear up: "'You cannot deviate from this. You have to say, ''Some things are good and right unto themselves'" he [Roger Wilkins] said again. 'No matter what the present mood in Washington is like, no mater what the people who are setting policy today believe, or want us to believe, no matter what the sense of temporary hopelessness that many of us often feel, we can not give up on the struggle we began and on the dream that brought us here.
"You cannot give it up. We cannot give it up. As a nation, as a people, I don't believe that we have any choice but to reject this acquiescence, to reject defeat.'"
Please read The Shame of the Nation. Perhaps it will change your life too.
--Elie
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