School Segregation Is Back With 'Vengeance,' Author Says

The Washington Post ^ | Monday, October 17, 2005 | Nick Anderson

[sammycook]

Jonathan Kozol, a former Boston schoolteacher, has written 11 books over four decades in a crusade to help inner-city children that government policymakers gently label "disadvantaged."

In "Shame," Kozol, 69, denounces the No Child Left Behind education law that President Bush pushed through Congress...

[sammycook]

Sorry if this is a repost, did a search and couldn't find it.

Seems that some people aren't convinced about the study that showed people learn better from people more like themselves.

[mlc9852]

It's a fact of life that schools in higher tax bracket areas will have more money to spend than schools in poorer areas. I think it's more economics than race.

[Termite_Commander]

Quick, we've got to go and import white kids to inner-city schools!

[FreePaul]

...segregated schooling is the oldest failed experiment in American social history...

I don't know if segregated schooling was an "experiment" or that it failed. In any case it would take a distant second place to forced integration which is a failed experiment.

[sheik yerbouty]

In the 60s they did that with one of my cousins in John Lindsay's "Fun City". He's been screwed up ever since..

[misterrob]

As a Boston public school kid, here's my recollection of what happened when liberal Judge Garrity decided that the school system was segregated:

1) Neighborhood schools were ruined.

2) White flight happened

3) Kids were bused across town early in the morning

4) Racists whites threw rocks and garbage at black kids in buses. (Democratic voting neighborhoods no less)

5) The end result was that the schools became overwhelmingly black (which is not in itself bad but sort of defeated the purpose which was to integrate the schools)

[bullypulpit]

The author is worried about segregation? Maybe he ought to seek and find reasons white families are not volunteering to allow their daughters and sons to be harrassed by hopelessness of inner cities. If anything, the efforts of white middle class families to seek and find a better environment for their children to learn should be applauded. Instead of blaming White America for protecting their children, he ought to learn exactly what white objections are and address them.

[TChris]

Quick, we've got to go and import white kids to inner-city schools!

...so they can be terrorized, assaulted and otherwise abused by animalistic gangs.

Does it ever dawn on these bleeding-heart sociologists that there just might be a reason why those who are able get away from inner-city schools as quickly as possible?

[liberallarry]

Awfully long for an excerpt. Are you sure this is legal?

[kjam22]

Instead of blaming White America for protecting their children, he ought to learn exactly what white objections are and address them.

You mean the in the same way that they would tell GWB to learn what the terrorists objections are.... and then address them?

[Graybeard58]

and give white suburban schools financial incentives for a new racial integration initiative with massive, but voluntary, systems of crosstown transportation.

Yes, that'll work, I'm sure.

[pesto]

Jonathan Kozol is an idiot. He spoke at my college years ago about some book about homeless children. I don't remember the numbers he used but they turned out to be way overblown..and of course back then it was all Reagan's fault..

[ClearCase_guy]

As Thomas Sowell will tell you: in the 1940's schools were segregated, but in many American cities the black schools were (although much poorer) equal too, and sometimes better than, the white schools.

As we can see from Washington DC today, throwing money at schools does not make them better. There is, in fact, no correlation between spending per student and academic achievement.

The disparity we see today between black and white students or between inner-city and suburban schools is not based on race. It is not based on class.

It's all based on cultural differences. The schools that are under-performing have adopted a self-destructive culture which elevates ho's, gangstas and victims to positions of respect.

There's nothing the government can do to help. These communities must heal themselves. To do that, they will need to find new leaders.

[reelfoot]

"It's a fact of life that schools in higher tax bracket areas will have more money to spend than schools in poorer areas. I think it's more economics than race."

My understanding is that the D.C. government schools consistently have one of the nation's highest per student expenditures yet are consistently among the nation's poorest performers. I suspect similar results would be found in other big city school systems. It's not economics.

[quadrant]

Jonathan Kozol devotion to social engineering is a fixation that reminds one of a mental illness. If Mr Kozol can ever be persuaded to abandon this fixation, he should reflect that attempts to force integration stirred great resentment among the public and ended in failure.

[Termite_Commander]

...so they can be terrorized, assaulted and otherwise abused by animalistic gangs.

That will improve the self-esteem of those terrorizing, assaulting and abusing.

[billbears]

Kozol's solution -- not likely, he conceded, to be enacted soon -- is to repeal No Child Left Behind, establish universal public preschool for needy children, drastically reduce class sizes in schools that serve the poorest children (to 18 or fewer students per teacher) and give white suburban schools financial incentives for a new racial integration initiative with massive, but voluntary, systems of crosstown transportation.

Standard big government Democrat/Republican solution. Come up with a ridiculous plan that will never work and throw money at it. I'm sure Mr. Kozol has figured out the costs of smaller classrooms, the pay increase for teachers or hiring new teachers, the cost of transportation, and the overrun that will naturally occur as this is a government project. Well of course he hasn't, but has that ever stopped a government program in the past?

God forbid anybody ever learn anything in these government 'learning' centers. Better we have the correct ratio of races in the classes as the most important issue in schools

[Graybeard58]

Awfully long for an excerpt. Are you sure this is legal?

300 word limit.

[SIDENET]

Kozol's solution -- not likely, he conceded, to be enacted soon -- is to repeal No Child Left Behind, establish universal public preschool for needy children, drastically reduce class sizes in schools that serve the poorest children (to 18 or fewer students per teacher) and give white suburban schools financial incentives for a new racial integration initiative with massive, but voluntary, systems of crosstown transportation.

In other words, a massive BUSING program. Also worth noting is that this leftist wants to offer financial incentives to suburban schools, not the intended victims of his awful idea.

[sammycook]

I grew up in Prince George's County in Maryland and was one of the white minority that got bussed all over the county. The end result is that after the NAACP sued to start busing, they have now sued to stop it because it is a huge waste of money that just buses the blacks from one community to another and that is all.