State Funding: All Students Prison Ready?

A recent report issued by the Pew Project on the States, found that our society now spends more money on prisons than on colleges. The Pew Charitable Trusts reports that those states are (in order of spending the most proportionally on prisons in 2007): Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware.

The Pew Project makes the case for individual states to reconsider mandatory sentences and other such policies for which they attribute the swell in prison population. With 1:100 American citizens currently behind bars, and rates of recidivism remaining consistent over the past few years, how can we rationalize this clear value judgment? But, just how much of an investment is it? The Pew report found that, “During the last 20 years, state based corrections spending has increased by 127 percent on top of inflation, while spending on higher end has increased only 21 percent.” What positive trend in upward mobility or economic prosperity do we have to show for this type of monetary investment? Back when Joe Biden was a viable presidential candidate, he made a statement that really resonated with me: Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget. Regardless of what candidate is claiming to throw more funding at education, the statistics clearly speak to our national values.

The NEA fact sheet shows that 75 percent of America's state prison inmates are high school dropouts. This type of data is sickening, yet helpful for lawmakers who use literacy rates to project future construction of prison facilities. The connection between education and incarceration is so clear, yet funding does not reflect this reality!

The consequences for children who do not leave our classrooms “college ready” is much greater than the empty space in the 80% mastery sticker chart. They are real and life determinative. As educators we know that high school graduation is the bare minimum necessary for accessing institutions of higher education, job training and successful entry into the job force. As a nation we cannot afford to invest such minimal social capital in this fight to reform the system.

Currently, we see nothing but a negative return on our prison investments. As discussed above, rates of both incarceration and recidivism are up. Don’t tell me you value education and then allot marginal amounts of a state budget to prevention programs or character education programs. We must move funding towards well researched prevention initiatives and successful school models that will transform our children into college matriculants instead of prison statistics.