School Superintendent To Governor: Please Make My School A Prison

[Royal Smoke]

I found this to be an interesting article....

 

 

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT TO GOVERNOR: PLEASE MAKE MY SCHOOL A PRISON

 

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573

 

A school superintendent in Michigan has written a public letter to the editor asking Governor Rick Snyder if his school can become a prison instead. The full text is below. What do you think?

 

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Dear Governor Snyder,

 

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 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

 

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573

[AmishRnot4ganja]

WOW. This is something that everyone in the state needs to see. It exposes the hypocrisy that is rampant in most Republican controlled governments. It puts it on a level where even the most mentally challenged citizen can understand the choices we have to make in society.

[garyfisher]

I feel this needs a BUMP/

[cristinew]

And remember what we get for 40,000,, non violent person sent to prison comes out a violent person

[+Silverblue]

Very Interesting. That letter says so much about what's wrong with the priorities our govt has. It speaks VOLUMES about so many things. WOW. Thanks for sharing it.

 

Sb

[Letterhead954]

Interesting letter, and he makes a good point. Sort of. I regularly hear calls for more spending on education. The fact is that the US is spending three times a much money per student, adjusted for inflation, than we did in 1970. Yet test scores have remained flat. There has been no significant improvement. The answer, I believe, is competition... vouchers and more charter schools. Make schools compete for students. Competition has always provided the best product at the lowest cost. I don't have much good to say about Europe, but there parents can send their kids to any school they want, and their test scores are much higher than ours. They can avoid failing schools, unlike many people here. Yet the teachers unions fight tooth and nail against this, as most charter schools and all private schools are non-union. It hurts their bottom line. I was fortunate enough to be able to send my daughter to private schools through 8th grade, while at the same time being forced to pay for the public school through my property taxes. We have the worst possible situation... our public schools are a government monopoly run by unions. No wonder they're a mess! Watch "Kid's Aren't Cars" and "Waiting For Superman" and you'll see what I mean.