Over a year ago, Jonathan Kozol came out with a new book, Still Separate, Still Unequal. I had read his previous book, Savage Inequalities and posted this brief intro to the two:
In the summer of 2003, in preparation for working in the public school system, I read the book, Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol. To say that the book changed my view of the public school system would be an understatement. Initially it shocked me that inequalities like this still existed even 30+ years after the Brown Ruling and that I had not heard about these recent (copyright 1990) inequalities. He opened my eyes to this injustice and made me forever an advocate of just public schools. In 1990 Kozol wrote revealing decrepit schools, out of date textbooks, segregated schools, and basically little of the change we thought had come from Brown vs. Board of Education on May 17, 1954.
Kozol has recently published a new book that gives a current account of the public school system, and the picture is not pretty. The Shame of the Nation, with a subtitle that speaks volumes: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.
To get more of a taste of Kozol before you go and check this book out of the library you can read an article pulled from the first chapter of the book.
The inequities in our US school system are huge. But oddly enough it does not always have to do with money spent. Often inner city schools which are in a very sad state, have more per child spending than suburban schools.