Someone who makes the same diagnosis of the problem while ignoring three four decades of attempted treatment seems like someone who doesn’t really care about the disease and may care more about the attention and wealth he gets for repeating the diagnosis. That’s why Kozol is worthy of mocking and why it is reasonable to harp on the attention and money he gets for repeating the same old thing.

For more on this see http://educationnext.org/savage-exaggerations/

Kozol’s Milwaukee appearance likely will focus on Wisconsin’s “war” on teachers, in a state where real per pupil spending is up several fold in the last 3-4 decades.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy between his ideology and his affection for fancy hotel rooms, Kozol explains that he’s no hypocrite, but actually a victim of American capitalism. “You can try to make your life as austere as possible,” he says, “but there’s no way of escaping the contradictions of our society. If you’re trying to engage in the cultural and political debates that exist in America today, you have to do it on the same terms as the people on the other side of the political spectrum.”

I think this is a cheap shot. It indicates a discomfort with someone who speaks with a voice of conscience about the effects of poverty — somehow he must be shown to be just as moneygrubbing as the rest of us, so we can stop feeling bad about the crimes against children his work chronicles.