Stop Savage Inequalities:Jonathan Kozol

While a live appearance by actor Matt Damon and a videotaped message from comedian John Stewart provided star power, I thought the most poignant voice of the DC Save Our Schools (SOS) rally came from noted writer Jonathan Kozol, long a critic of American education and one of the nation's most vocal voices on behalf of poor,underprivileged, under-served children.

Of course, I may be somewhat biased in my ratings since Kozol, along with the Dali Lama and civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees, form the central trinity of my living noted people I most admire list.


Kozol, speaking within view of the site where a National Memorial to slain Civil Rights Dr. Martin Luther King will be dedicated next month, said Dr. King would be appalled with the conditions in poor and urban American schools today.  Dr. King's dream did not call for higher test scores, but for an America where all children receive equal educational opportunities, he said. "What we have today is a perversion of his dream," Kozol told the crowd.

As did many of the day's speakers, Kozol attacked President Barack Obama for failing to get rid of the No Child Left Behind law, which critics contend has imposed unfair penalties on poor schools; narrowed curriculum to make test-taking, not knowledge and critical and creative thinking a prime purpose; led to more and more schools being labeled as failing; and now is encouraging the use of test results to determine good teaching.

"We had reason to believe from his campaign promises that Obama was going to reverse the damage this law has caused.  He has betrayed us," Kozol contended.

Kozol, a former teacher who spends much of his time in inner-city classrooms as research for his award-winning books, said he constantly witnesses marvelous teachers in classrooms around the country teaching in deploarble conditions brought on by horrible decisions by those in power.

"I was in California and I saw this marvelous history teacher teaching 42 kids. 42 kids. So I asked her right in front of the class 'How the hell does someone teach 42 kids' Well, I shouldn't have asked that question. She smiled, handed me a piece of chalk, and walked out of the classroom," Kozol said.

Kozol, making no attempt to keep the fire from his voice, said he found it morally repugnant that so many public educational decisions were being promulgated by politicians and rich business leaders who sent their own children to private schools where class size was 15 students or smaller.

"Fifteen in a class.  If  that is good for the kids of politicians, if that is good for the kids of businessmen, then it is good for the poorest child in America," he contended