Students Nationwide Begin to Protest Cuts

In California state legislators just approved a state budget that reeks with massive cuts in education, but very little if any in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.(CDCR) Prior to this round of cuts, they had just taken 5 billion dollars from education and given it to the CDCR and that was after having already given them a 37% raise over a few years. All of this was done AFTER the Governor had called the state's prion agency a "7 billion dollar failure and promised significant cuts and lay-offs; non of which materialized. Now it doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out what the priority is in California, but my question is if the prison system was a 7 billion dollar failure before they were given the 5 billion taken from education; does that make them a 12 billion dollar failure now?

It should be noted for the sake of those outside of California, that this state has the largest, most expensive prison system in the world and yet they posses the dubious title of having three times the national average in recidivism. In other words; California fails three times more than any state in the country at rehabilitating those they incarcerate. Is it me or does it seem that if they were doing their jobs successfully, that this particular agency would be shrinking rather than growing??

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association(CCPOA) which is the prison guard's union is one of the most powerful in the state (and many observers argue the world) contributes millions of dollars to state legislator's election campaigns and there you have the motivation for the cuts in education. Check the facts for yourself and you'll see that California spends almost double on building and sustaining their prison system than they do on educating their young. This may imply that prisons in California are no longer a necessary evil that protects the public from criminals, but has become a lucrative (and far too costly) business for those employed by the state. The average salary, which is state taxpayer dollar funded ranges anywhere from 40 to 200 thousand a year, with retirees receiving as much as 80 to 90 thousand a year for life upon retiring. Check the figures for yourself.

The real problem is that our college students and young people are suffering both now and in the future.Statistics have proven along with substantiated testimony of numerous sociologist/psychologist that young people who can't afford college are far more likely to end up in trouble and eventually in prison. So is that the goal of the corrections department in California? Keep them uneducated and keep our prisons full? You do the math.

Concerned Taxpayer and College Grad of CA 2:18PM February 23, 2009