Almost half of the country is facing deep education budget cuts, with the worst cuts happening this past year as a result of the funds from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act running out. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least 19 states cut education funding by more than five percent between 2010–11 and 2011–12, and four states cut funding by more than 10 percent. These cuts are evident in many ways whether it’s removing art and music classes from the curriculum, dropping junior varsity athletics or in the worst cases, completely shutting down an entire school. After having to borrow over $300 million for the 2012/2013 school year, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission were forced to make the decision of shutting down 23 of their public schools. The decision was made last March, which left teachers scrambling for jobs this summer as well as parents searching for schools their children could attend.With the state short on money to keep these schools up and running, it was disconcerting for citizens to see that $400 million from taxpayers was being poured into building a new state correctional facility this summer located outside of Philadelphia.
The new prison will replace the State Correctional Institute at Graterford, which is over its capacity. According to crime analyst Nathan James, the federal prison system in the U.S. in 2011 was operating at a 39 percent over capacity rate. As prisons continue to fill up, it’s time we focus on preventing criminals from being incarcerated in the first place instead of how we will accommodate them. If we turn our attention to educating the youth and helping them graduate with a diploma, they may just have a chance of living a life free of crime and perhaps we would not have to keep spending money on building new prisons. A series of studies performed by the Alliance for Excellent Education concluded that by reaching a five percent increase in graduation rates among high school males, the United States would save over $215 billion in criminal costs. These costs include, but are not limited to, court costs, damages reported from the actual crimes and prison upkeep. Another statistic worth noting that the Alliance for Excellent Education came upon was that the U.S. spends on average $12,643 annually to educate one individual in contrast to the $28, 323 used to house one inmate. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, believes that there is a correlation between the lack of high school diplomas and those who are incarcerated. He pointed out that according to the most recent study done by the U.S. Bureau of Justice, over 67 percent of state jail mates did not graduate high school. To further support Wise’s statement, the U.S. ranks highest in incarceration rates but falls short in education by being ranked 17th among all of the world’s developed countries.
Growing up in a suburb outside of Chicago, I was familiar with many of the pressures my friends living in the city dealt when choosing a high school. They took multiple tests to get into magnet schools which were superior in academics compared to other non-magnet schools. A magnet school is a highly selective public high school where students must apply to be granted admission. Admission is then based off test scores and a computerized lottery system. I was fortunate enough that the public school in my suburb offered superb academics, and as long as your family paid their taxes, you were granted admission. However, getting a good education in the city was similar to a lottery for most of my friends.
My cousin, Douglas North, has been teaching in the Chicago Public School system for 8 years. Like Philadelphia and many other cities, Chicago dealt with numerous cutbacks in budgets that eventually led to the teacher’s union going on strike. Douglas explained to me the obstacles teachers face in trying to give each of their students an excellent education with low resources after his school lost over a million dollars in its budget this year.
“Teachers had to start paying for their own printer cartridges for the classroom and xerox copying was limited which made it difficult to give skill based lessons outside the use of textbooks,” he said. “Our technology is dated and many of our student support groups have been cut.”
As a teacher, he expressed the importance of funding for education in our country, “It’s cheaper to educate a student than it is to house an inmate. The options low-income students have are slim if they don’t have what it takes to attend college. It’s either join the army or drop out and end up in prison. If the more trade schools were offered, those students would have a way to make a living after earning their diploma.”
Low-funded public schools are acting as a prison pipeline in which they funnel their students who dropped out into prisons. Douglas was not surprised by the study presented by the Alliance of Excellent Education in regards to our nation’s spending on a student compared to an inmate.
“Our society focuses on the business aspect of all things,” he said. “More profit comes from prisons. There’s business opportunity from the jumpsuits inmates wear to the toothbrushes they use. Unfortunately school’s do not offer as much profit as prisons.”
The budget cuts that led 23 public schools in Philadelphia to shut down is a teacher’s, a student’s and a parent’s worst nightmare. However, this should come to no shock as we start to hone in on where our state’s money is going to. The study done by the Alliance for Excellent Education brings forth a bold idea. The short term problems we face of prisons over populating could be worth the long term goal of having a more educated and less criminal nation if we find a way to better distribute our tax dollars.
Vanessa Righeimer can be reached at vanessa.righeimer@spartans.ut.edu