Kozol writes that children in isolated rural districts face the same problems that students face in East St. Louis and Chicago. He goes on to say that the "nature of the poverty" is different. Kozol states that a profound difference is the fact that in the inner-cities, the poorest schools sometimes are adjacent to the richest schools. Just curious!!!! What are your thoughts on this issue????

Tami, Even though each situation has it differences< I think there are some similarities too. We certainly don't have any schools that compare to those in Kozol's book in my school district, but Iredell County is a huge county. On th "south end" we have the Lake schools--- meaning Lake Norman---where lots of wealth is located. New schools have been built there in the last few years and they are "state of the art". Test scores are always impressive---these children come from families of doctors, laywers, businessmen, college educated parents. There parents demand the best from their schools, yet there are other schools in Iredell County which are in desperate need of repair and lack computer labs etc. which the "Lake schools would never do without." So how do we justify "the haves and the have nots" within one school system? It always bothers me to see that the wealth and the resources are not distributed evenly---It is obvious but no one is willing to jump right in there and do something about it.

I just find it incredible that the public can turn their head when they see such inequalities. The conditions of the schools described is very difficult for me to imagine and believe, but for the people/business leaders/politicians who live near these communities to see and ignore is astounding. I have always argued that some (a lot-if not most) of our foreign aid should be brought back home. Is this America? Why are these issues not covered by the media more rigorously? How can such a large and significant population of people be ignored for so long?
As Penny stated, I know there are some well endowed schools within the Catawba system (I work at SFE, in which we serve a large portion of Lake students). However, the inequalities are nowhere near to the extreme of urban communities. Because of the new high $ developments built across from our school, we are seeing a significant increase in wealthy families move into our area. Mooresville is really growing out. Some of the parents that I have spoken with would prefer to continue to send their children to private schools. However, there is not really any options in our area. After a little time in our school, they discover that SFE is a good school, academically, with warm, loving teachers.
I am also glad that they are equipping new schools better, but they do need to return to older schools and constantly update. I feel guilty about complaining, at all, after reading this book. I am beginning to feel quite fortunate to have a warm, clean school.

When thinking about rural schools, I think they definitly face their own set of problems. Last semester some articles I read suggests that their problems are different from those faced by urban schools, but still very real. Many of these schools have costs that other schools do not incur. For example, their transportation costs are higher, which leaves less money for salaries, materials and equipment. So I agree that rural schools face their own problems.

I feel that the rural schools do face the same problems as inner city schools. The whole problem is the issue of how one plays a better game of poltics. If the parents would begin to take interest in the schools and demand better funding then eventually the school would get at least some of the things it needs. This type of biased funding is in most school systems.

While reading the responses on this particular thread, I kept thinking about what you guys are saying and tried to visualize what I perceived as the real problem. Maybe the real problem is not how much money a system or school has or doesn't have, perhaps the true problem is the way individual schools are funded. If we all want true equality in education, then the government will need to take a critical look at funding.
It is true - that pouring more money into a school will not permanently fix any problem, but let's face it - new windows, plumbing, and heating cost money and these types of problems need to be addressed. My question is this - if we want a true equlity in our school systems - maybe we should take a look at the way money is allocated - where it comes from - who it goes to - etc.