Jonathan Kozol knows full well that “apartheid” is a loaded word.

That’s why Kozol’s use of the word in the title of his new book, “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America” ($25, Crown), is purposefully provocative. The laws that once sent black students to one school and white students to another have been gone for decades. But schools are nearly as segregated today as they were 30 years ago, as white parents have moved to the suburbs and minorities have remained in central cities.

Kozol argues that separateness is, by itself, a problem. Black and Hispanic children feel abandoned by society when they’re put in schools with only a smattering of white faces, he says. Segregation is a problem whether it’s mandated by law or a result of housing patterns.

His case will be unconvincing to many, since the sort of busing programs necessary to realign racial boundaries have proved unpopular among whites and minorities.

But he moves to stronger ground when he points out the yawning gaps between white and minority schools. The biggest is funding. Across America, it’s not uncommon for wealthy suburban districts to spend 50 or 100 percent more per pupil than poor urban districts. For minority kids, that often turns into larger classes, less experienced teachers and crumbling facilities.

But Kozol smartly goes beyond the finances to the tonal differences that show up in various schools. Urban schools, worried about discipline and the basic skills that raise test scores, often impose a martial-law atmosphere, enforcing silence all day long and teaching math and vocabulary with drill-sergeant precision. It’s a far cry from the holistic approach many suburban schools offer, and Kozol argues it can drain away kids’ interest in learning.