Kozol also makes the point, that the kids are sick many with lead poisoning. What do you both say to that. I'm playing devil's advocate here but what do you do about that?
There may well be lead poisoning. It's been a problem all over the country, not just ESL. It was much worse in the past, because lead-based paints were used everywhere. You yourself have probably spent time in buildings which were painted with lead-based paints (just one reason not to lick the walls). Individuals with lead poisoning can be identified through blood testing.
Apart from lead-based paint, manufacturing facilities can be a source of environmental lead pollution, for example a plant that makes (or made) batteries. Undoubtedly the Illinois EPA, if not the Federal EPA, has required testing for not just lead but many other pollutants at all major manufacturing facilities in the state, including in the ESL area. If lead levels tested exceed a certain threshold, a site can be designated as a federal superfund site for remediation.
If Kozol is suggesting that manufacturing sites around ESL do not get tested for pollution, that is almost certainly wrong. There is probably a wealth of info available from the Illinois EPA on testing for environmental pollution at manufacturing sites in and around ESL.
There has been a problem with lead poisoning in the water supply of Washington, D.C. which just came to light in the last few years.
http://www.epa.gov/dclead/
In DC, the problem has not been a lack of money to fix the problem of lead pipes but simply incompetence in the city government going back many decades. Ever since there has been self-government in DC, political leaders get elected by race-baiting. The populace elects many leaders that are simply not competent to run the government, and are thoroughly corrupt to boot. Other similarly-situated cities fixed the problem of lead pollution from water supply piping decades ago.
It sounds like you are raising two issues ... one that the kids are sick, which is a very broad allegation ... the other that they are specifically sick with lead poisoning. The first is too nonspecific for me to address. Is he saying they are too sick to learn? That is hard to believe, especially for any child who is well enough to play sports. Is he claiming they have no health care? That would be ridiculous; poor children have Medicaid. If they are not getting care it is not because it is unavailable, but because their parents are not using it. (That *is* a very real problem, maybe Kozol could explain how it is the government's fault.)
As for the lead poisoning, I believe it unlikely that schoolage children would have acute lead poisoning. AFAIK, most cases occur in preschool children. (Notice in the link provided by Sir John, the advice is for blood testing of children under age 6. But as he points out, toxicity can be screened for; acute toxicity can be treated with EDTA (remember that from the OJ trial?). Low-income children are eligible for free sceening. If there is lead in the apartment paint the law requires that it be dealt with or the family moved to a different one that meets standards. If Kozol suggests that the govt ignores this problem that is simply false.