According to the Pew Foundation, the United States has questionable priorities when it comes to funding education. A 2011 Pew study found that five states spent as much or more on prisons as they did on education, and 28 states were spending 50 cents on prisons for every dollar spent on education. Pew also found that between 1987 and 2007 spending on prisons rose 127 percent. During that same time spending on education only rose 21 percent.
Some states seem to have gotten the message. For example, Minnesota, a state with the lowest (or next to lowest — depending upon source) incarceration rate in the country, only spends 17 cents on corrections for every dollar it spends on education. Note: this is no coincidence.
In a sense it comes down to a simple choice: schools or prisons. There is almost no other set of alternatives. Even education delivered to those in prison has long-term positive effects. Education is one of the best deterrents to re-offending. In a study conducted for the U.S. Department of Education, researchers found participation in state correctional education programs lowers the likelihood of re-incarceration by 29 percent. In addition, the study concluded that for every dollar spent on education, more than two dollars in reduced prison costs would be returned to taxpayers.
Moreover, advanced educational opportunities help to prepare formerly incarcerated individuals to compete in the labor market, join the workforce, and positively contribute to the economy. Employment reduces recidivism and increases the chance that a formerly incarcerated person will successfully transition into the community.
Naysayers always deride these kinds of figures as fuzzy-headed liberalism, bent on filling the streets with unrepentant murders and rapists. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the organizations behind these figures have any common purpose it is to stop the hemorrhage of taxpayers’ dollars from the open wound of a failed culture of mass incarceration and mismanaged public schools. Simply put, we can either choose to fund education (at all levels) or we can build more prisons — at all levels.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
With this as context, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe’s recent rap on the knuckles for the state Higher Education Coordinating Board is especially bad news. According to an Arkansas News Bureau report, the board recommended $63.5 million in new funding for Arkansas’ colleges and universities, but Gov. Mike Beebe told the board not to expect to get it. Giving the keynote speech at the conference, Beebe said, “I wish I had greater news to tell you, that we have a big pot of money and that big pot of money is going to alleviate some of your problems. I can’t tell you that, and I’m not going to lie to you about it.”
While Beebe’s candor is laudable, the substance of his remarks are anything but. No one expects Beebe to magically produce “a big pot of money” like some political leprechaun, but staying the present course is pure blarney. Beebe tried to soften the pall his rebuke cast over the future of our state. He encouraged the higher education officials to be optimistic.
“This isn’t going to last forever, people,” Beebe said. “This economy in the fashion that it currently sits in is not going to last forever. We have to position ourselves to be in a posture to take advantage of any recovery in a way that continues to highlight the progress that Arkansas has made in higher education.”
That’s all well and good, but every dollar we sink into less productive spheres today is one that will keep us playing catch-up tomorrow. While talk of tomorrow’s theoretical wine and roses makes a nice story, being drunk and covered in dead flowers doesn’t create jobs, boost revenues or deter crime. Education does. As we enter the season of holiday giving, this blow to progress and fiscal sanity is one gift that is poised to keep on giving.