The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

In Chapter 6, Kozol describes “a new emboldenment” as “relatively privileged” parents actively separate their children “from more than token numbers of the children of minorities” (135).

First, he details how many of the best public schools have “admissions policies that clearly favor children of ‘savvy parents’” (135). For example, some applications need to be filed up to a year in advance, long before “less knowledgable parents” would think to sign their children up. Parents also might have to write about their “educational philosophy” and commit to providing “certain forms of educational support” (136). Furthermore, children often have to take tests or interviews for admission, and “educated parents” help their children prepare with coaching or expensive preparation programs.

As a result of these complicated processes, author Katha Pollitt describes how these public schools become “disproportionately white enclaves.” Despite this inequality, she argues that if parents want their children to get a good education, they have no choice but “to pocket [their] qualms” (137).

These “selective elementary schools” funnel children into equally selective high schools. One such school is Stuyvesant High School, an institution filled with “extraordinary students” who “win numerous awards and honors” and are “rewarded […] with academic opportunities” (139). However, the school’s racial demographics are “a source of great embarrassment” (140).