Posted by
Playful Walrus on Thursday, January 06, 2011 11:07:46 AM
How often have you heard that, or some variation of that? We hear that in California. The implication is that we should be spending more money on schools than prisons, and if we did, we'd have less need for prison.
This brings up many different points.
1. Is it true? No. According to this, about 52 to 55 percent of the State General Fund Budget is spent on K–12 and Higher Education. It is mathematically impossible that more of the general fund could be spent on prisons. Also, we have a mandated minimum to spend on education.
Still, we are spending a lot on prisons and related things. We spend more per prisoner than most, if not all, other states. If anything, we should be spending less on prisons instead of more on schools.
2. Prisons tend to be occupied 24/7/365, though it would be interesting if they shut down and everyone went home for weekends, holidays, and session breaks like happens in the schools.
3. More security is needed in prisons, as the people there tend to be more violent than in public schools. At least by a little.
4. Prisoners get health care. For the most part, schools don't provide health care for students, at least not yet. Universities tend to be an exception.
5. The prison guard unions are even better at manipulating the system than the teachers unions.
6. It has long been a basic function of government, and is reflected in our federal Constitution, to remove criminals from the general society and/or punish them. There is more legitimate reason for the state to be involved in prisons than in schools.
7. I can educate myself, as can many other people. How many criminals self-imprison? It is possible to homeschool your kid, and people learn things outside of formal education all of the time. It isn't as practical for violent prisoners to be "home prisoned".
8. There's a lot of private funding in education, too, as well as additional local funds.
9. While time served on any given sentence in prison may be a lot less than the years we sentence our kids to schooling, prisoners tend to return.
10. Unlike schools, people don't want prisons in their neighborhood, so prisons are built in remote areas and it costs more to operate them as a result.
11. What SHOULD we be spending on schools, anyway? How much is enough?
12. Plenty of educated people commit crimes. When you educate a criminal, you don't stop them from being a criminal. You make them a smarter criminal.
13. Still don't like how much we’re spending on prisons? Tell people to stop committing crimes.
(This is a repost.)