WHAT IF THEY MADE SCHOOLS PRISONS?

University of Mississippi President Robert Khayat, speaking in McComb
Wednesday, repeated a mantra he and other proponents of more funding for
education have been using for quite a while: It takes $6,000 a year to
educate a person; $20,000 a year to maintain a state prison inmate.

It's a telling statistic, although critics of the education establishment
argue that more money doesn't always equate better education. It's
undeniable that the vast majority of prison inmates are functionally
illiterate and that few - Khayat says 1 percent - have college degrees.

State Rep. Cecil Brown of Jackson has been making speeches for the past
year or so, alleging that 40 percent of Mississippi students who enroll in
the 7th grade never make it through the 12th.

This is a much higher dropout rate than figures reported by the public
schools, but remember that the compulsory education laws don't apply past
age 17. Those who somehow get into high school as slow readers or no
readers often quit school at that age and turn to low-paying jobs or,
worse, crime.

The underlying problem, of course, is lack of early childhood education,
especially reading skills, that should be delivered by parents before
children ever reach kindergarten age. Unfortunately, in Mississippi, there
are too many unwed mothers and other parents who have no education
themselves and no appreciation for it. It's a vicious cycle that feeds on
itself.

Solution to the problem lies in breaking the cycle by, among other things,
making sure all children can read by the time they finish third grade. It's
easier said than done with kids who come from homes where no one reads.

After hearing Khayat's speech, Jerry Malone of Southwest Mississippi
Community College, sent us a column by Margo Freistadt of the San Francisco
Chronicle which speaks to the issue of education and prisons in California,
both of which apparently cost more in California than Mississippi. The
column, though tongue in cheek, is thought-provoking. Here are some excerpts:

"A simple solution would avert the budget disaster facing California's
schools: We should declare every public school to be a prison. The kids
would understand.

"Details need to be worked out, but I want every child in California to be
given a 13-year prison sentence at age 5, with the possibility of a
four-year extension.

"That way, the $7,000 the state spends per student each year could
immediately be raised to $27,000 - what the state spends on each inmate
annually. And our criminally under-funded schools would qualify for the
only category in the governor's proposed budget that's slated to get more
money this year....

"Given the alternative of layoffs, more crowded classrooms, fewer teachers'
aides and disappearing supplies, school officials should jump for joy at
the chance for their district's schools to be transformed into prisons and
their students to become inmates....

"Elementary schools in San Francisco haven't been staffed with school
nurses for many years. Recent court cases, however, have set minimal levels
for acceptable health care for prisoners. If schools suddenly became
prisons, students would be entitled to the same health care standards.

"Prison nurses would step in and school secretaries, administrators and
teachers' aides could get back to educating - instead of tending to the
endless parade of students needing Band-Aids, ice packs, lice checks and
help with their asthma inhalers....

"Prison guards deserve every penny they get. It's a tough and stressful
line of work, often unappreciated by the inmates and their families. Sound
like a teacher's job?"