Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jan 2003
Source: Enterprise-Journal, The (MS)
Copyright: 2003 The Enterprise-Journal
Contact:  http://www.enterprise-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/917

WHAT IF THEY MADE SCHOOLS PRISONS?

University of Mississippi President Robert Khayat, speaking in McComb 
Wednesday, repeated a mantra he and other proponents of more funding for 
education have been using for quite a while: It takes $6,000 a year to 
educate a person; $20,000 a year to maintain a state prison inmate.

It's a telling statistic, although critics of the education establishment 
argue that more money doesn't always equate better education. It's 
undeniable that the vast majority of prison inmates are functionally 
illiterate and that few - Khayat says 1 percent - have college degrees.

State Rep. Cecil Brown of Jackson has been making speeches for the past 
year or so, alleging that 40 percent of Mississippi students who enroll in 
the 7th grade never make it through the 12th.

This is a much higher dropout rate than figures reported by the public 
schools, but remember that the compulsory education laws don't apply past 
age 17. Those who somehow get into high school as slow readers or no 
readers often quit school at that age and turn to low-paying jobs or, 
worse, crime.

The underlying problem, of course, is lack of early childhood education, 
especially reading skills, that should be delivered by parents before 
children ever reach kindergarten age. Unfortunately, in Mississippi, there 
are too many unwed mothers and other parents who have no education 
themselves and no appreciation for it. It's a vicious cycle that feeds on 
itself.

Solution to the problem lies in breaking the cycle by, among other things, 
making sure all children can read by the time they finish third grade. It's 
easier said than done with kids who come from homes where no one reads.

After hearing Khayat's speech, Jerry Malone of Southwest Mississippi 
Community College, sent us a column by Margo Freistadt of the San Francisco 
Chronicle which speaks to the issue of education and prisons in California, 
both of which apparently cost more in California than Mississippi. The 
column, though tongue in cheek, is thought-provoking. Here are some excerpts:

"A simple solution would avert the budget disaster facing California's 
schools: We should declare every public school to be a prison. The kids 
would understand.

"Details need to be worked out, but I want every child in California to be 
given a 13-year prison sentence at age 5, with the possibility of a 
four-year extension.

"That way, the $7,000 the state spends per student each year could 
immediately be raised to $27,000 - what the state spends on each inmate 
annually. And our criminally under-funded schools would qualify for the 
only category in the governor's proposed budget that's slated to get more 
money this year....

"Given the alternative of layoffs, more crowded classrooms, fewer teachers' 
aides and disappearing supplies, school officials should jump for joy at 
the chance for their district's schools to be transformed into prisons and 
their students to become inmates....

"Elementary schools in San Francisco haven't been staffed with school 
nurses for many years. Recent court cases, however, have set minimal levels 
for acceptable health care for prisoners. If schools suddenly became 
prisons, students would be entitled to the same health care standards.

"Prison nurses would step in and school secretaries, administrators and 
teachers' aides could get back to educating - instead of tending to the 
endless parade of students needing Band-Aids, ice packs, lice checks and 
help with their asthma inhalers....

"Prison guards deserve every penny they get. It's a tough and stressful 
line of work, often unappreciated by the inmates and their families. Sound 
like a teacher's job?"
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart