Prison, Drug War Spending Rockets in US While Higher Education Funding Declines Tyler Kingkade and William McGuinness - Huffington Post
go to original September 22, 2012

In 2012, both corrections spending and student debt hit $1 trillion milestones, leading higher education advocates to wonder how prison costs soak up education allocations, thus hurting the economy and limiting low income students’ access to campuses.

So far, President Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney agreed on extending a low interest rate on federally subsidized student loans but have largely considered the increasing cost of college a state issue.

While campaigning, Obama likes to point out that his daughters are not yet college-aged, saying, "I can tell you with some experience that making higher education affordable for our young people is something that I've got a personal stake in." In his State of the Union address this year, he proposed a $1 billion Race to the Top competition to reward colleges for controlling their own costs, but he's been unable to secure congressional funding for it.

Meanwhile, Romney has suggested students could borrow money from their parents and shop around for the education at an appropriate cost, believing the colleges offering the best return on investment will flourish. Romney insists his economic plan would help students long-term, believing they would be more likely to get jobs after graduation and higher salaries to pay back their loans.

But neither candidate's approach deals directly with the alarming increases in college costs, which have far outpaced the rate of inflation and made a college education possible for fewer people while the economy demands more skilled grads. While Obama has raised the issue, often on college campuses, their system presidents have already tightened their belts to a choking point.

State governments dole out less money in appropriations and student grants each year, while spending on corrections are frequently increasing. Higher education advocates are compelled to join a rising criticism of the War On Drugs and its bloating effect on state prison budgets, which have matched or eclipsed higher ed budgets.

The U.S. incarceration rate in 1980 was 220 for every 100,000 people, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Today, with more than 2 million people incarcerated, the rate has climbed to 743 per 100,000 people. Reason magazine's Veronique de Rugy points out nonviolent drug offenders account for "roughly one-fourth of all inmates in the United States, up from less than 10 percent in 1980."

Read more at The Huffington Post

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