No. Seriously. This is really bothering me. Between the schools in Philly closing and the unreliable figures dealing with the school closings in Chicago, it appears that the prison education is the education that the public really wants for our youth, ESPECIALLY our inner city/urban (read: Black and Hispanic) youth.
Yes, I know the prisons being built in Philly are private funded, but they still had to get approval from the city and state to even be built. That's how building things work. Approval first, THEN building. So, basically, the city government saw fit to close schools, cut the budget, and tell the teachers to "figure it out", all while approving a brand new prison which, by the way, will have GED and trade programs.
So, let me get this straight. Instead of investing the money into the school, these state governments would rather....invest it in the corporation that is building a prison in the very place that will displace hundreds upon hundreds of kids.
Like, what sense does this make? But it's happening across the country. When I was dating Beane, he called me one day UPSET. "Baby, they are closing a bunch of the High Schools here in the D. It's not fair!" He and our other friends from Detroit went on to describe how and why they were closing these schools. It's the same everywhere. Schools closed. Teachers fired. But somehow, the government in that area finds the funds to support and invest in prisons. Or they come up with excuses on why the schools can't stay open. In Biloxi, they claimed the brand new school in the middle of the black neighborhood would cost "too much to operate" and then closed it, forcing hundreds of kids to go across town. You know what's happening to the building now? Nothing. It's a multimillion dollar building, sitting in the middle of the hood, not even being used for a community center. Meanwhile, the city government has decided to use bonds and BP oil spill money to build a minor league baseball stadium, across from the Beau Rivage casino.
Pay attention. They take away the schools where you get the basics. Take away the programs that keep the kids off the street. Replace both with privately funded prisons that are often used to as labor markets. Keep in mind, the constitution says that once you are in prison, you are a slave of the state. Slave = free labor. More private prisons = more free labor.
Can we say capitalism, kids? CAPITALISM.
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