Separate and Unequal

Nathan Glazer in The New York Times reviews The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol.

His attack on the disparity in expenditure on education between central cities and well-to-do suburbs is similar. There has been research using the standard tests that questions whether greater expenditures on schools and students produce better educational results, but that research does not discourage Kozol. He expresses outrage at inequities in expenditure, pointing out that New York City in 2002-3 spent $11,627 on the education of each child, while Manhasset spent $22,311, Great Neck $19,705 and so on. There are comparable disparities in other metropolitan areas. (I have often been amused by these per-student expenditure figures, and have performed the thought experiment of calculating how much would be available at these levels of expenditure for the education of, say, a class of 20 children. It comes to some $220,000 for New York City, and one would think that would be more than enough to pay the teacher well, buy books and materials, maintain the classroom and even pay the janitor. One wonders where the money goes. The question is even more provocative when one considers the $440,000 available for a class in Manhasset.)