Turning schools into prisons

[Racket_Man]

as the title of this post suggests (with a bit of tongue in cheek) there is a Michigan school superintentant that want the state to turn the schools in his district into prisons. but not for the obvious reason

http://drouhard.net/wp/2011/05/natha...s-genius-idea/

a posting of his letter (the 2d on down) to the state lawmakers.
http://gcherald.com/letterseditor/le...11-issue.shtml

basically what it boils down to is this: the state spends an average of $30k to $40k per year on EACH and every person in prison. they only spend an average of $7k per year on each publicv school student.. the super is only asking for a little equality esp when his funding is getting slashed and the corrections budget is getting bigger.

The prisoners get things like a full library of books, state of the art workout equipment, free internet access, 3 free meals a day, a warm and "permenant" place to sleep each night along with a roof over their heads and free clothing.

best quote from his open letter

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison

[HYHYBT]

Interesting that he lists education as one of the things prisoners get that students don't...

The two are simply too different to compare dollar-to-dollar. Not just security, though it's true a lot more goes into keeping people in prison than in school; that one group is not allowed to leave for years on end while the other is only there a few hours a day makes a difference.

I'm *not* saying either that prisons shouldn't have less or schools more, only that the comparison doesn't work.

[mikoyan29]

Our state (Michigan) went on a huge prison building spree for a while. Now many of these new prisons are getting shuttered and the prisoners are getting consolidated. It seems to me that there would be a larger savings by cutting the prison budget over the school budget. But since we've elected Republicans and they tend to be all about law and order, that's not going to happen. The sad part is that many of the people in these prisons are from the drug war and probably could be released. But again, that represents a "moral" issue and wont get addressed.

[insertNameHere]

I like the guy in texas who makes the prisoners work and actually contribute something to society. I think it is sad how much opportunity prisoners get, they really don't deserve all the special amenities that they get, hell my school library was a joke. That is what prisoners deserve.

[HYHYBT]

I *think* that one's Arizona, though I could easily be wrong and there might be more than one.

[tropicsgoddess]

I understand Mr.Boontz's point of view on that. It's a shame that the public school system in the U.S. has been getting the short end of the stick. Budget cuts, slashing faculty and classes (and because of that damn No Child Left Behind crap), cramming kids to learn how to fill out scantron sheets on standardized tests for the sake of school funding (and if the school fucks up...no money). Children are our future and with the way things are going with the public education system, it's bad but worse if you're in the south (coughcoughFlorida). We should invest more in the kids getting a good education. Education is key and knowledge is power.

[Rageaholic]

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. According to this article, prisoners are treated better than students.