A review by mtk_reads
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol

5.0

This was a slow, slow read - not because it's a long book, or because it's particularly dense, but because I could only read about half a chapter at a time before I got so angry that I had to take a walk. It's dated, obviously - 1991, with most of the data coming from the late 80s or before - but so many of the things it talks about are substantially unchanged in the past 24 years that it's still worth the read.

Short version: educational funding in the US is deeply, profoundly fucked up.

This part in particular stuck with me - Kozol is quoting O.Z. White, talking about educational funding in San Antonio and Rodriguez vs. San Antonio ISD:

"To a real degree, what is considered 'adequate' or 'necessary' or 'sufficient' for the poor in Texas is determined by the rich or relatively rich; it is decided in accord with their opinion of what children of the poor are fitted to become, and what their social role should be."

And the rich get richer, and the poor get screwed.