Good Evening Everyone! Over this weekend, I researched the lowest achieving schools in the Bay area, and found some interesting results. It seems that many of these schools are clustered around large population areas that are made of lower income residents, and have relatively high crime rates. Many of these lower performing areas, such as Oakland, Richmond, and East Palo Alto also have environmental concerns stemming from hazardous waste and urban decay. I also found that areas with very affluent and very poor residents such as San Francisco, tend to have poorer performing public schools. This is likely because many of the more affluent residents opt to send their children to private schools, and therefore spend more money there while the working class has to make do with the public schools they are dealt with. In contrast, Marin County, a very rich area, has very little failing public schools and has been able to maintain the standard for public education. The theme of class inequality found in Jonathan Kozol's book, Savage Inequalities, is very relevant in this situation. In some parts of the Bay Area, such as East Palo Alto and Palo Alto, the differences are enormous. In a manner reminiscent of East St. Louis and St. Louis proper, one side of the 101 freeway contains nice and expensive suburban homes, while across the street, is the poor and crime ridden city of East Palo Alto. Another similarity between the book and the situation in the Bay Area is the conditions in Richmond's West Contra Costa Unified School District. Much of Richmond was built as a war industry town in World War II, and when the war ended, the need for war material ended with it resulting in empty factories and massive layoffs. As a result, urban decay and chemical contamination has become an issue for the area in recent years as the city attempts to clean up the remnants of the war. The city is also in deep debt, and has neglected to provide safe and hygienic facilities for schools, resulting in an ACLU lawsuit against the schools' deplorable conditions. The similarities between today and the book are chilling to say the least, and serve as a solemn reminder that the fight for equality is far from over.