Apartheid America

[undeRliRcs]

A black school in the North, circa 1905. Image has been altered

Apartheid America

Jonathan Kozol rails against a public school system that, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, is still deeply -- and shamefully -- segregated.

By Sarah Karnasiewicz

Sept. 22, 2005 | "Segregation is not something that happens by chance, like weather conditions," says Jonathan Kozol. "It is the work of men." So it is not without irony that it has taken a hurricane -- and the excruciating images of stranded black faces, beamed across cable airwaves -- for Americans to confront the reality that vast numbers of their fellow citizens live in segregated ghettos and suffer from abject poverty. But for Kozol, who has built his career on exposing the race- and class-based injustices endemic to the United States' educational system, the knowledge that we live in a deeply divided society has long been a foregone -- if heartbreaking -- conclusion.

For 40 years, in bestselling books such as "Savage Inequalities" and "Amazing Grace," Kozol has reported from urban schools across the nation, befriending teachers and students who, despite the promises of Brown v. Board of Education, still live and learn in crumbling buildings and in overcrowded classrooms with scarce supplies. "I cannot discern even the slightest hint that any vestige of [the Brown decision] has survived within these schools and neighborhoods," he writes in his new book, "The Shame of the Nation." "I simply never see white children."

Full article here (requires viewing of short ad OR premium membership): http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/09/2...l/index_np.html

[Starcom826]

In my community, despite the school being overwhelmingly white, we have a program called METCO where African Americans from Boston are bused to our school. Surrounding school districts have similar programs as well. Note how they are exclusively African American. No asians. No hispanics. Just African Americans. Sounds really fair to me. Some of these ideas are just plain bad. Urban schools tend to have the same problems for all races. I mean besides giving the schools some more money to work with, there really isn't all that much you can do. This is to the discretion of the local government too. If you want to spend the money on education, you'd better be prepared to pay for it.

[Dave Veteran]

In my community, despite the school being overwhelmingly white, we have a program called METCO where African Americans from Boston are bused to our school.  Surrounding school districts have similar programs as well.  Note how they are exclusively African American.  No asians.  No hispanics.  Just African Americans.  Sounds really fair to me.  Some of these ideas are just plain bad.  Urban schools tend to have the same problems for all races.  I mean besides giving the schools some more money to work with, there really isn't all that much you can do.  This is to the discretion of the local government too.  If you want to spend the money on education, you'd better be prepared to pay for it.

586564334[/snapback]

Making the school system federal in the US is a good start. I fail to why a child who parents live in higher property valued house, deserve to have more money spent on their child by the government. Property taxes are generally the way that local school districts are funded.

It's a shame to see children in North Philadelphia, "learning computers' on Apple IIgs and crammed 40 to a room, while children accross the Delaware river in suburban New Jersey are building there third annex so class sizes are around 10-15 children, and have what many of us would consider modern PCs and relevant software in school labs.

There should be a set amount spent on each child in the country, not these huge gulfs like we have now.

[fascist]

My school. Our district has been adding on to our highschool, and plans uture additions to the other schools for a while now. We mostly have new dells in alll of our schools except jr high ( i go to the high school) It is quite overpacked but the addition will soon help out our school. O ya I live in New Jersey where tax and property is just so damn exspensive, so that might have an impact.