Summary Of Kozol's Savage Inequalities

Another strength of Kozol’s work is that he informs readers of the political, societal, and economic conditions that have led the schools to be in the state they are today. It is important to have that background knowledge to have an understanding of how these schools have got to such a horrid state. The problems in the school are a direct result of politics and the conditions around the school. There is one instance in the book where Kozol talks about what the politicians say about inner city schools. They refer to them as “sinkholes”. The Governor of Chicago was quoted as saying “We can’t keep throwing money into a black hole” (p. 53). The ignorance of political figures regarding these schools is a huge factor as to why they are failing.

This repetitiveness does slightly take away from the strong impact the book should make. Monotony tends to take away interest of the reader. Also, the book would have been incredibly stronger, had Kozol provided detailed solutions to the problem. He briefly mentions equal funding in schools via tax money as a solution. Given the fact that we pour unnecessary and excessive amounts of money into prisons, the same can, and rightfully should, be done for schools. So equal funding in schools is most definitely feasible. While I do think this solution is workable with strategic planning, I would have liked to know how Kozol thinks this could be successfully executed. When we are informed of the problem, we don’t just want to hear about it, we want detailed solutions as well. Kozol is an insightful and intelligent man, I am sure he would have had great solutions for the problem of inequality in schools as well. I would have liked to read about detailed plans for implementing various solutions. Perhaps if he had done that, his solutions could have been implemented. The integration of possible solutions would have greatly enhanced the text. I understand that Kozol wanted to evoke strong emotional responses in his readers, and that is why he focuses mainly on describing the inequalities in schools; however, by not suggesting any policies or strategies for reform, Kozol did not produce an entirely effective