Jonathan Kozol

No human being who wants to read and own a book should ever have to go on a bended knee to get it.

Racial segregation has come back to public education with a vengeance.

The 'niche' effect of charter schools guarantees a swift and vicious deepening of class and racial separation.

I think a moment of critical energy has suddenly emerged. But moments like this come and go unless we seize them at their height.

At that time, I had recently finished a book called Amazing Grace, which many people tell me is a very painful book to read. Well, if it was painful to read, it was also painful to write. I had pains in my chest for two years while I was writing that book.

It's sad that some people who have one exciting moment spend the rest of their lives rehashing it.

We are now operating a school system in America that's more segregated than at any time since the death of Martin Luther King.

Even if you never do anything about this, you've benefited from an unjust system. You're already the winner in a game that was rigged to your advantage from the start.

Death at an Early Age' was about racial segregation in Boston. 'Illiterate America' was about grownups who can't read. 'Rachel and Her Children' was about people who were homeless in the middle of Manhattan.

Separate and unequal didn't work 100 years ago. It will not work today.

Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.

Apartheid does not happen spontaneously, like bad weather conditions.