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.
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