Prisons Or Schools. Which Would You Prefer?

Do you know Charles M. Blow? Well, he's a regular OP ED columnist at the N.Y.Times. He pointed out today, that the U.S. spends about 2 1/2 times as much on each prisoner than on each public school pupil. Now I know, I know it costs more to keep prisoners in prison, what with guards and barbed wire and so on. But the point he was making is that if we educated our kids better, if we made sure they received proper medical care and nutritional care and a better education, we could very likely save a bundle on prisons. In fact we wouldn't need as many prisons. Maybe the idea is that since the prisons are already built, we might as well continue to use them. Unfortunately, the prisons are horribly overcrowded and courts are beginning to require us to release some prisoners. I guess we either need to build a lot more prison space or improve the way we treat children. So how are we doing on the decision? Well many states are cutting back on nutrition programs and on school funding. All of which sounds like we've decided which way to go. I don't know about you, but I just can't believe our politicians and elected officials think that the best way to preserve the future for our young people is to deprive our young people of an excellent education and basic health and nutrition. In fact, you can forget the excellent part and reduce that to depriving our young people of even a mediocre education. And all of this doesn't even touch on birth control. That's a whole other subject. But if we are unwilling to provide birth control, then we need to take the responsibility of the resulting children. I realize I'm asking a lot, but don't you think we'd be a whole lot better off as a nation if every child was receiving a good education, and a healthy nutritious upbringing?