The MI school that would rather be a prison

[Doctor Fishcake]

...but wait, it's not what you might think.

holykaw.alltop.com/school-superintendent-requests-school-be-turn

Well, Nathan Bootz, a school superintendent wrote a letter to the governor of Michigan requesting that his school be turned into a prison where the state’s funding shortage isn’t having quite the impact it’s having on his schools.

The letter is very much worth a read IMO.

[Her3tiK]

Hahaha nice! That'll fix that problem up nicely, especially since schools already get armed guards!

[Tiberius]

Didn't this happen on The Simpsons once?

[booley]

some of the comments are.. interesting.

[HarleyThomas1002]

Jun 2, 2011 11:01:28 GMT -5 Tiberius said:

Didn't this happen on The Simpsons once?

I was just thinking that.

[Vene]

My prediction, the programs the superintendent wants for schools that prisons have will be cut from prisons instead.

[Smurfette Principle]

I like this comment:

You may just have stopped short here. Why not treat prisoners like schoolchildren and keep them for $7000 per year. Less people may be inclined to become prisoners, and perhaps instead of comitting crimes, they'll consider improving their education and getting a job eh?

[nickiknack]

I see some of the comments again ignore how welfare was reformed...one has to love the fantasyland they live in.

[Vene]

Jun 2, 2011 14:24:39 GMT -5 Smurfette Principle said:

I like this comment:

You may just have stopped short here. Why not treat prisoners like schoolchildren and keep them for $7000 per year. Less people may be inclined to become prisoners, and perhaps instead of comitting crimes, they'll consider improving their education and getting a job eh?

Too bad that is not how it works, a system like that only breeds better and harder criminals. Paying for rehabilitation means they won't do stupid shit again (especially if they did the crime as a means to survive without said education and job). And our society doesn't make it feasible for a lot of people to get education when they have to work 60 hours a week to pay for rent, food, and transportation. Education is only an option when you're already ahead in some manner.

[sylvana]

The scary thing is, given how republicans like to act, I would be surprised if they got this letter and realized that they could cut funding to prisons as well.
"Holy Jesus, we are spending $40K on each prisoner, just imagine the tax cuts for business we could get if we cut prison funding."

I must agree with the letter though. However, I also understand the financial position. Prisoners are a great expense on society because they are incarcerated and completely incapable of providing for themselves. School children on the other hand, are the legal property of their parents who are expected to provide those things given to prisoners. The very real problem that in poorer communities especially parents are incapable of providing enough for their family to eat, let alone things like computer labs is another issue. One last little financial wriggle is that the number of school children greatly outweigh the number of prisoners. (this is a good thing, by the way) If you provided both systems with an equal amount of funds, you would probably have far less than $7000 per child. at the end of the day as it all gets distributed.

If only there were real workable effective solutions to societies problems.

[katz]

This is actually less crazy than you'd think. Because the rural area I grew up in is really poor, almost all the public buildings are made so they'd be easy to turn into other things in the event of the area needing the money. The high school was built to be turned into a low security prison, and the middle and elementary school were built to turn into nursing homes.

[Thejebusfire]

Most kids think they're school is a prision anyway...

[HarleyThomas1002]

Why not make that thought into a reality? I'm sure there's a great lesson to learn.

[Smurfette Principle]

Jun 2, 2011 15:57:01 GMT -5 Vene said:

Jun 2, 2011 14:24:39 GMT -5 Smurfette Principle said:

I like this comment:

Too bad that is not how it works, a system like that only breeds better and harder criminals. Paying for rehabilitation means they won't do stupid shit again (especially if they did the crime as a means to survive without said education and job). And our society doesn't make it feasible for a lot of people to get education when they have to work 60 hours a week to pay for rent, food, and transportation. Education is only an option when you're already ahead in some manner.

I thought that that was the point of the comment; to educate people with a system equal to that of, say, high school.

[ltfred]

They should have themselves labelled a tax cut. Then Republicans would properly fund them.