Convert Schools Into Prisons To Get More Funding

Outraged By Cuts, Superintendent Asks Gov. Snyder To Convert Schools Into Prisons To Get More Funding

The conservative governors who were elected across the country last November have championedhuge cuts to public education spending while resisting efforts to raise revenues from the wealthiest among us. In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) proposed cutting millions of dollars from the public education budget, and this week the GOP-controlled state senate passed a “contentious K-12 budget that cuts $470 per student from school districts.”

Outraged by these cuts, Nathan Bootz, the superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, wrote a letter to the editor in a local paper proposing an idea that could come out of a Jonathan Swift novel: if Snyder intends on draining funding from public schools, maybe Bootz should convert the schools in his district into prisons to get funding.

Noting that Michigan spends “between $30,000 and $40,000″ on each prisoner but can barely provide $7,000 per public school student, Bootz says that maybe we need to start treating “our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding“:

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[ LINK: ThinkProgress ]

Note BOLD emphasis is mine.

Posted via email from Pa^2 Patois