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Quote by Jonathan Kozol

“As a matter of record, New York City spends a higher portion of its budget on instruction and associated costs within the schools themselves than any of the other 100 largest districts in the nation.”

Quote by Jonathan Kozol

Author

Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, educator, and civil rights activist, best known for his sharp critiques of inequality in the U.S. public education system. Born in Boston and a Harvard graduate, he taught in Chicago public schools, where witnessing racial segregation and resource disparities led him to advocate for educational equity. His seminal works, including 'Savage Inequalities' (1991) and 'Amazing Grace' (1995), expose the struggles of impoverished schools and have sparked national debate. Kozol's writing blends personal narrative with social analysis, emphasizing education as a fundamental human right. He has received awards such as the National Book Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and continues to speak and write on educational justice. more

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“During the decades after Brown v. Board of Education there was terrific progress. Tens of thousands of public schools were integrated racially. During that time the gap between black and white achievement narrowed.”

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“I once made a check of all books in my fourth-grade classroom. Of the slightly more than six hundred books, almost one quarter had been published prior to the bombing of Hiroshima; 60 percent were either ten years old or older.”

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“I wrote the first book, and I thought people would say: 'Separate and unequal schools in the City of Boston? I didn't know that. Let's go out and fix it.'”

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“In the book, I write about children in first grade who were taught to read by reading want ads. They learned to write by writing job applications. Imagine what would happen if anyone tried to do that to children in a predominantly white suburban school.”

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“The contrasts between what is spent today to educate a child in the poorest New York City neighborhoods, where teacher salaries are often even lower than the city averages, and spending levels in the wealthiest suburban areas are daunting challenges to any hope New Yorkers might retain that even semblances of fairness still prevail.”

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“The first ten, twelve or fifteen years of life are excavated of inherent moral worth in order to accommodate a regimen of basic training for the adult years that many of the poorest children may not even live to know.”

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Source: Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope