Greetings ladies and gentlemen. D. Politopolous reporting once again. This is a wrap up of my discussion for now regarding education funding and prison funding. Specifically, I'll be answering Jinx's third and final question on the topic. So let us review the final query:
"Should budget cut protesters be focusing more on the underlying cause of these cuts such as the prison system you mentioned?" My response to this is a definite yes.
As the statistics show, many of these impoverished neighborhoods are deprived of many essential provisions needed to maintain a presentable community. A good bit of the youth today take no interest in receiving an education whatsoever, and many of these individuals join the same massive population of inmates. Now many of these youth may simply have no interest in schooling, however this can not simply be blamed on the student. The quality of the education is also a factor, as the statistics proved quite frankly in Act III.
Is it simply a coincidence that many of the lowest performing schools are in range of, if not within poor neighborhoods? Is it mere coincidence that the majority of these neighborhoods house African-American citizens, let alone 70 percent of the prison population consisting of African-American citizens? This is in no means restricted to the black population to be clear, and I would much rather let the readers think on this question:
"Why is it that the world finds it much easier to build tanks, prisons, and missiles, but we cannot build a simple school, a strong work force to educate our future generations?"
The answer is simple: An education is dangerous in the eyes of big business. Corporations make no money off of an educated populous, in addition to finding it easier to keep the masses conformed and rested under their shoe with a lack of knowledge. With that fact, it seems nothing like a coincidence that many corporate CEO's and officials are also politicians, as the policies, laws, and regulations are influenced by whom?
In the near future, I shall go deeper in depth into one aspect of this issue, and that is what the exact reason are that sees the youth take less interest in educating themselves. I aim to touch on various other subjects related to all of this well. Until then, this is D. Politopolous on recess.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Curriculum v. Corrections- Act III
Hey guys, D. Politopolous here again. Apologies again for another delay, but I have returned and looked back over Jinx's questions from an earlier "Act I" post. So I'll to continue this discussion onto the second question:
"Are there any business incentives or underlying motives for spending so much time and money to purposely incarcerate adults?" Jinx, the answer to this question would be a definite yes in the form of what are referred to as "million dollar blocks."
When looking at the communities and neighborhoods in which people have criminal records, many of them are impoverished neighborhoods in urban areas. In addition, these areas statistically have suffered from lack of quality education funding and resources. High concentrations of these inmates have originated from these million dollar blocks. Even more statistically unsettling, the mass majority of these poor neighborhoods are primarily populated by people of color. These neighborhoods see tremendous public sector investments in incarceration of residents. On the opposite end of this bargain, the schools in these neighborhoods are very low performing. The areas also are densely populated, thereby maximizing corrections investments.
An adequate example of this trend is the controversy surrounding the city of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. In 2009, the city was left with a $160 million loss in state funding, resulting in a $147 million dollar shortfall. During this same time period, taxpayer money geared towards imprisoning residents totaled $290 million. The source of these inmates was a mere 11 neighborhoods in the city, yet the areas held one quarter of Philadelphia's population.
In correspondence to these statistics, sixty-six percent of the city's lower-performing schools are densely located within and/or near these neighborhoods. Contrasting this, 75 percent of Philadelphia's more equipped and well-performing schools are in neighborhoods with the lowest rates of incarceration.
This is the blueprint of the prison business in America. And with that, D. Politopolous on recess for now. I'll answer the final question as soon as I can.
"Are there any business incentives or underlying motives for spending so much time and money to purposely incarcerate adults?" Jinx, the answer to this question would be a definite yes in the form of what are referred to as "million dollar blocks."
When looking at the communities and neighborhoods in which people have criminal records, many of them are impoverished neighborhoods in urban areas. In addition, these areas statistically have suffered from lack of quality education funding and resources. High concentrations of these inmates have originated from these million dollar blocks. Even more statistically unsettling, the mass majority of these poor neighborhoods are primarily populated by people of color. These neighborhoods see tremendous public sector investments in incarceration of residents. On the opposite end of this bargain, the schools in these neighborhoods are very low performing. The areas also are densely populated, thereby maximizing corrections investments.
An adequate example of this trend is the controversy surrounding the city of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. In 2009, the city was left with a $160 million loss in state funding, resulting in a $147 million dollar shortfall. During this same time period, taxpayer money geared towards imprisoning residents totaled $290 million. The source of these inmates was a mere 11 neighborhoods in the city, yet the areas held one quarter of Philadelphia's population.
In correspondence to these statistics, sixty-six percent of the city's lower-performing schools are densely located within and/or near these neighborhoods. Contrasting this, 75 percent of Philadelphia's more equipped and well-performing schools are in neighborhoods with the lowest rates of incarceration.
This is the blueprint of the prison business in America. And with that, D. Politopolous on recess for now. I'll answer the final question as soon as I can.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Curriculum v. Corrections- Act II
Hey guys, Darnellios reporting again. Accept my apologies for the delay in this post. I have returned and shall continue where I left off on the topic of education funding v. prison funding. Now I took a look at some of the comments on my previous post, and I took a particular interest in Jinx's questions that he posed to me. So I will be happy to answer these questions to my fullest knowledge, and with no further ado, let me begin with the first:
"Is there any reason that so much money is being funneled into the prison systems instead of elsewhere?"
Yes indeed there is a reason, and the answer is quite simple here: The increase in prison population and incarcerated citizens. To review, the US possesses the largest prison population in the world at 2.3 million. In addition to that, about 5 million US citizens are on parole or probation. That totals up to approximately 7.3 million people within the US justice system. Turning to another country population reference, that 7.3 million rivals that of Bulgaria's population, with a difference of only a mere 55,000. With a correction population that high, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will cost a pretty penny to maintain it all. From quartering to providing food to security measures and other expenses, the corrections system is costly.
A prime example would be the state of California, which is currently experiencing a prison overpopulation crisis, and are currently trying to shrink the size of their prison population. Though California has managed to decrease the occupational capacity to about 140 percent, they exceed state target capacity of 137.5 percent. In an attempt to remedy this, prisoners are being sent out of state, while others are being shipped to private prisons. Still more are being placed in county jails for low-level offenses. While this attributed to California's slight decrease in prison population, their jail populations are now increasing; thus they are now back to square one.
Furthermore, when the funding for prison systems comes from the same pool as education, health care, housing, and public assistance, money can and most certainly will be drained from that fund for correction costs. Although the funding going toward the other aspects of the budget is still larger- specifically for education- than the corrections fund, the billions of dollars spent on corrections is still increasing while the other funds are decreasing, leading to a lack of funds remaining for all else. In conclusion, more citizens incarcerated means more money towards corrections, and more money towards corrections means less money towards curriculum.
Hopefully I helped you gain a better understanding of this topic Jinx. I will end this post here and answer the remaining questions on newer posts as soon as I can, preferably this week. The next inquiry I shall touch on is such regarding business incentives and underlying motives.
For now, this is D. Politopolous on recess.
"Is there any reason that so much money is being funneled into the prison systems instead of elsewhere?"
Yes indeed there is a reason, and the answer is quite simple here: The increase in prison population and incarcerated citizens. To review, the US possesses the largest prison population in the world at 2.3 million. In addition to that, about 5 million US citizens are on parole or probation. That totals up to approximately 7.3 million people within the US justice system. Turning to another country population reference, that 7.3 million rivals that of Bulgaria's population, with a difference of only a mere 55,000. With a correction population that high, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will cost a pretty penny to maintain it all. From quartering to providing food to security measures and other expenses, the corrections system is costly.
A prime example would be the state of California, which is currently experiencing a prison overpopulation crisis, and are currently trying to shrink the size of their prison population. Though California has managed to decrease the occupational capacity to about 140 percent, they exceed state target capacity of 137.5 percent. In an attempt to remedy this, prisoners are being sent out of state, while others are being shipped to private prisons. Still more are being placed in county jails for low-level offenses. While this attributed to California's slight decrease in prison population, their jail populations are now increasing; thus they are now back to square one.
Furthermore, when the funding for prison systems comes from the same pool as education, health care, housing, and public assistance, money can and most certainly will be drained from that fund for correction costs. Although the funding going toward the other aspects of the budget is still larger- specifically for education- than the corrections fund, the billions of dollars spent on corrections is still increasing while the other funds are decreasing, leading to a lack of funds remaining for all else. In conclusion, more citizens incarcerated means more money towards corrections, and more money towards corrections means less money towards curriculum.
Hopefully I helped you gain a better understanding of this topic Jinx. I will end this post here and answer the remaining questions on newer posts as soon as I can, preferably this week. The next inquiry I shall touch on is such regarding business incentives and underlying motives.
For now, this is D. Politopolous on recess.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Curriculum v. Corrections- Act I
In the last post, I talked about excessive defense spending and what we could better utilize our money for. Well let us speak on the topic of education systems and prison systems. This is a highly contested topic in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, especially during the Corbett Administration.
Now the defense spending in the United States unnecessarily high, but that is not the only aspect of the American statistics that is alarming to many people. The population of US prisons and jails is also at an all-time high. From 1980 to the present time, the prison population grew from 500,000 to a staggering 2.3 million. That number exceeds the population of Namibia by 200,000. The United States now carries the inconvenient title of possessing the largest population of incarcerated citizens. Even more ludicrous is the fact that the US accounts for 25 percent of the global prison population, yet we only possess five percent of the global population. In addition to this, the US spends approximately $70 billion annually to jail and imprison adults, hold juveniles in detention centers, and keep close supervision on 7.3 million individuals on probation or parole. This high level of spending on corrections has drained essential funding from other sources, one of the largest victims being education.
The majority of all imprisonment spending is on the state level. The funding comes from one large budget that includes other aspects like education, health care, and housing. Elementary and high school education in most states receive on average 73 percent of their funding from this source, while colleges and universities receive about half of their funding from said source. Now every nine of ten dollars that support the imprisonment systems and process are drawn from the same fund as education. The billions of dollars spent on funding prison systems has severely reduced the money available for education spending.
In the next post, we'll go more in depth with these costs, cost cuts, and the affects it has visibly had on education.
Now the defense spending in the United States unnecessarily high, but that is not the only aspect of the American statistics that is alarming to many people. The population of US prisons and jails is also at an all-time high. From 1980 to the present time, the prison population grew from 500,000 to a staggering 2.3 million. That number exceeds the population of Namibia by 200,000. The United States now carries the inconvenient title of possessing the largest population of incarcerated citizens. Even more ludicrous is the fact that the US accounts for 25 percent of the global prison population, yet we only possess five percent of the global population. In addition to this, the US spends approximately $70 billion annually to jail and imprison adults, hold juveniles in detention centers, and keep close supervision on 7.3 million individuals on probation or parole. This high level of spending on corrections has drained essential funding from other sources, one of the largest victims being education.
The majority of all imprisonment spending is on the state level. The funding comes from one large budget that includes other aspects like education, health care, and housing. Elementary and high school education in most states receive on average 73 percent of their funding from this source, while colleges and universities receive about half of their funding from said source. Now every nine of ten dollars that support the imprisonment systems and process are drawn from the same fund as education. The billions of dollars spent on funding prison systems has severely reduced the money available for education spending.
In the next post, we'll go more in depth with these costs, cost cuts, and the affects it has visibly had on education.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Defense Expense Way Over The Fence
Take a look at the American government's main portion of spending for a moment. Yes, I am talking about military spending. It is undoubtedly where most of American dollars are put in annually, and it has been that way for years. Now when we look at the history of the US and its spending on defense, it did help the country rise out of the Great Depression during World War II. In these modern times however, the level of US defense spending is highly over the fence, with defense spending amounting to 20% of the federal budget. There is a large consensus on this issue within the US alone, and many agree we need to get our priorities straight.
When one should should take a look at the Countries spending the most on the military, the numbers are quite unbelievable. The United States government spent approximately $618.7 billion dollars in the year 2013 solely on defense spending. The country that totals the second highest is China, with a defense budget of $171.4 billion dollars in. If we move further down the list, Russia will be seen at the third position with a budget of $84.9 billion dollars. In fact, if one were to look at the budgets shown for other nations below the United States, it would show that The U.S. spends more on defense than the next eight countries combined. These countries include- going down the list- China, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, France, The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and India; all of which are allies of the US.
Statistics also state that the level of US defense spending has actually decreased in recent years by about 7.8%, while the other countries have increased in the same category. Among the next four countries behind the US, China increased its defense spending by about 7.4%, Russia increased by 4.8%, Saudi Arabia increased by 9.3%, and France decreased by 2.3%. In spite of that, the US still accounted for 37% of the world's defense spending in 2013.
I don't really see the relevance in spending this much militarily when we have much more pressing matters in our country to tend to. In the next post, I shall speak of the difference in US defense spending compared to the other aspect of our budget.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Wolf's Ascension Or Corbett's Retention?
As the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania comes to a close, many students and teachers are on the edge of their desks as they anxiously await the results of Election Day. Many people are in support of Democratic nominee Tom Wolf, and they all hope and pray for Governor Corbett's day of reckoning. As many people have heard, the Corbett Administration hasn't been very nice to Pennsylvania's needs; most notably the education system in the cities, especially Philadelphia. However, as flawed as Corbett may seem, Wolf is not exactly looking the sharpest on his end either.
The final debate came to a close between the two, and quite frankly Tom Wolf seemed quite weak in his responses. They had no substance, nor did he effectively answer any questions thrown at him. Tom Corbett overall performed better in the debates than Wolf; he was able to give better answers to the questions. If one should watch closely , Wolf has given his supporter little to nothing to go on.
Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Debate
What he utilizes most in his debates and attacks is the repeated statement of Corbett cutting funding to education; he answers questions repeatedly with the one claim. In addition to this, he speaks repeatedly of plan design, and that he has a plan. However, he does not even once speak of what that plan is. He gives no detail, overview, nothing to think about; he only states that the state officials need to find a way to create extra revenue to increase funding and savings. This much is true, but how that will be done is the question that Wolf failed to answer. Corbett was visibly able to answer the questions given to him better than Wolf could. From the looks of it, Wolf doesn't seem very trustworthy.
From the looks of it from my perspective, it appears that the election is for the lesser of two evils. One is a loose cannon (Wolf), while the other is an ineffective politician (Corbett). When it gets down to who would be a better option, Wolf would be such. The question is: What will we expect from Thomas Wolf if he should take office?
The final debate came to a close between the two, and quite frankly Tom Wolf seemed quite weak in his responses. They had no substance, nor did he effectively answer any questions thrown at him. Tom Corbett overall performed better in the debates than Wolf; he was able to give better answers to the questions. If one should watch closely , Wolf has given his supporter little to nothing to go on.
Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Debate
What he utilizes most in his debates and attacks is the repeated statement of Corbett cutting funding to education; he answers questions repeatedly with the one claim. In addition to this, he speaks repeatedly of plan design, and that he has a plan. However, he does not even once speak of what that plan is. He gives no detail, overview, nothing to think about; he only states that the state officials need to find a way to create extra revenue to increase funding and savings. This much is true, but how that will be done is the question that Wolf failed to answer. Corbett was visibly able to answer the questions given to him better than Wolf could. From the looks of it, Wolf doesn't seem very trustworthy.
From the looks of it from my perspective, it appears that the election is for the lesser of two evils. One is a loose cannon (Wolf), while the other is an ineffective politician (Corbett). When it gets down to who would be a better option, Wolf would be such. The question is: What will we expect from Thomas Wolf if he should take office?
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