Over the last 30 years, local and state governments increased how much they spend on putting people in jail three times more than how much they spend on educating students, according to a new analysis by the Department of Education.
The department examined corrections spending and education spending data from 1979-1980 to 2012-2013 and found that over that time, governments increased spending on incarceration by 324 percent (from $17 to $71 billion). This is more than three times the spending increase on education, which only grew 107 percent (from $258 to $534 billion) over the same time period.
All of the 50 states had lower expenditure growth rates for PK-12 education than for corrections. Seven states increased corrections budgets more than five times as quickly than they did K-12 education budgets: ?Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia?. Texas had the largest percentage increase over 30 years, hiking incarceration spending by 850 percent.
The Department goes on to point out that there is an inverse relationship between levels of education and rates of incarceration. So, next time you here a legislator or governor telling you we have to cut education spending (ahem…Dan Malloy) ask him or her what’s happening with the prison budget.
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