Prisoners being treated better than students

[Dot_Hack]

I was talking about this in another thread, but i didn't want to go off topic; so I made a new thread.

Anyway, Michigan schools suck and this letter from a superintendent to the governor pretty much explains why:

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

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.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz
Superintendent
Ithaca Public Schools

What do you guys think?

[Dameo]

maybe in Michigan, but around here id rather be on the street that sitting in our county jail again. Its straight up awful.

Agreed(I live in gwinnett), after being in there I turned over a new leaf lol...

[Oisterman]

Jail =/= prison.

Imagine how much worse its gotta be.

[Oisterman]

Kids go to school for almost a third of the day, yet they only get $7,000 per student. Even if they went to school the whole day they would only get around $21,000 per student (7000 * 3[because it would mean they were there 3 times longer than normal]). That would still be ~9000 less than the lowest prisoner.

What I'm saying is the state is a hell of a lot more responsible for a prisoner stuck in their building 24/7 than a student who comes 5 days out of the week for a few hours a day.

Of course the state is going to spend more on prisoners. They control every single aspect of their lives.

I'm not agreeing that students should receive less ATTENTION than prisoners, I'm just saying it makes sense that the prisoners get more funding.

The state is essentially becoming a "parent" for the "child" (prisoner). The school isn't so much a parent as a day care...am I making any sense to anyone or just sounding like a nut?

Now, there are plenty of extremely simple ways to get more funding, but thats best left to another thread, as its a whole different topic to begin with.

I'm not arguing with ya, I'm just saying it makes a little more sense than you are giving it credit. Just one more reason mandatory minimum sentences (for ANYTHING) are so much more bullshit than helpful.

[Pwet]

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

Sounds great they he words it like that, but it's not.

3 meals a day = processed tasteless crap don't like it? Well you can starve.
Free health care = your cellmate just ***-***** you. bit of butt ointment there you go tiger, get back to it.
Internet/cable TV = monitored and only for people with short sentences
earn a degree = waiting lists, not everyone can
roof = no roof, prisoners escaping durr
clothing = fashionable itchy orange clothing so cool yo

[Ronin]

The state is essentially becoming a "parent" for the "child" (prisoner). The school isn't so much a parent as a day care...am I making any sense to anyone or just sounding like a nut?

No, you are not sounding like a nut. This is exactly why the argument is bogus.