Savage Inequalities: Essay on Chapters 1-4 Chris Hendrick Mayer, PHIL 1200-100

In chapter one of Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, he speaks of the disastrous state of East St. Louis. He describes in horrific detail, the condition that many school children from grades K-12 are forced to learn in. East St. Louis is one of the worst ghettos in Illinois, and Kozol goes into great detail about the multitude of problems facing the city and more importantly, the school children living there. The economy is too weak to pay for any type of necessity for the schools. Therefore, the school system is compromised. There is absolutely no money for proper …show more content…

Because private and well-off public schools are located in more well-off neighborhoods, inner-city black kids in Chicago have no chance of receiving an equal education to suburban white kids. The parentage also plays into the opportunities available to the student. Kozol argues that it is unfair to disregard poor black students because they only turn out to be unsuccessful because of their upbringing. While I agree that the wealth is obviously not distributed to public schools from the various sources of funding, I disagree that parents lack the skills necessary to find an alternative to a public school. He argues that because most parents are uneducated themselves, they cannot even find out information on an alternative. I believe that really depends on the parent, educated or uneducated. There is however, an effort from the parents and community of these nicer schools to keep out the lower-class students from nearby neighborhoods. Parents, CEO’s, and voters of these communities have voted against building new public schools, and against demanded segregation of students of different race, or from different neighborhoods. This is a clear example of the Injustice Kozol speaks about. In the Chicago school system there is obvious evidence of racial prejudice and inequality. In chapter three, Kozol speaks of the injustice that poor children do not have the opportunity for the means of competition in the public schools of New York. It is the