Incarceration
- America has the highest incarceration rate in the world
- 1 out of 100 adults are in prison
- The U.S. incarcerates 5 times the world average
- Once released from prison, 2 out of 3 are rearrested within a year
- In 1982 state prison budget was 9 billion
- In 2009 state prison budget exceeds 60 billion
- Crime rates in America have been dropping for the last 15 years, while budget spending has increased steadily
- The U.S. spends 6 times more money on prisons than education
- California in 2006 spent 8,000 dollars on one student in the Oakland School district
- California in 2006 spent 216,000 dollars on one juvenile inmate.
- Over the course of the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons increased by 570%, while the money spent on education increased by only 33%
- Over 75% of inmates are illiterate at a 12th grade reading level
- Less than 20% of inmates have their high school diploma.
Education
- 48% of U.S. schools are reporting budget cuts around 10%
- 30% of U.S. schools are reporting budget cuts between 11% and 25%
- Due to extreme budget cuts students are being asked to bring in more school supplies then ever. For example, in Moody, Alabama students are made to bring in toilet paper, paper towels, and liquid soap.
- Due to extreme budget cuts Hawaii will not have classes on Fridays
- In Arizona funding for a full-day kindergarten has been eliminated
- In 2005 over 24,000 public schools did not meet the federal requirement for adequate yearly progress
- In 2007 1,000 of California's 9,500 schools are labeled failures
- 68% of eighth graders cant read at their grade level and statistics say they will never catch up
- 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year
One question : WHY are we experiencing budget cuts ????
I think these are interesting points, and to answer your questions why are budget cuts happening, because people want to maximize profits with the lease amount of effort. But we can also blame ourselves for not doing anything about it.
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