State Universities versus State Prisons; And Marijuana Legalization as a Solution

[n2doc]

Juan Cole:


Why is tuition so high in state universities that the NYT is wondering if families will go on being able to afford it?

As someone who has observed this rise in tuition over an academic career of 30 years, as graduate student and professor, I have some theories from an insider perspective.

State universities have had to raise tuition because state legislatures have continually cut back every year the amount of state funding for them. Already in 2005 this article in Philanthropy News Digest explained:

'For example, less than 14 percent of the University of Oregon's total revenue came from state funds in 2003-04, compared to 32 percent in 1985-86, while tuition fees accounted for more than 33 percent of the university's budget, compared to 22 percent twenty years ago. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan has lost 12 percent of its state funding, or $43 million, over the past two years. According to UM spokeswoman Julie Peterson, state money now only accounts for 8 percent of the university's budget. "We can't rely on state funding alone," said Peterson. "It simply isn't enough."'


That statistic, whereby the University of Oregon went from having 33 percent of its total revenue from state sources in 1985 to 14 percent in 2005, was typical of what happened throughout the whole country. The typical revenue streams for state universities used to be 1) State support, 2) tuition and fees, 3) Federal grants, and 4) alumni donations and the resulting endowment. At some state universities, the state contribution may now be the fourth largest source.

Now, why did states cut back the universities so much? It wasn't that the state legislators were bad people or anti-intellectuals for the most part.

The Reagan/ Grover Norquist line that government is not the solution, government is the problem, and the demand for lower taxes (especially on the wealthy) was influential in many states. So essentially the American big business class of about 3 million people was given the opportunity to quadruple its vast wealth through lower taxes (when you lower taxes on a particular segment of the public, that is wealth distribution in their favor). Meanwhile public functions of government are cut back and everybody else gets potholes, closed public libraries, underfunded state universities, etc.

more:

http://www.juancole.com/2008/12/state-universities-versus-state-prisons.html

Final comments from the article:
If the Religious Right could, it would just close down all the biology classes in the country (because after all they teach that wicked Darwin) and leave the development of biotech to the South Koreans, with Americans--denied the wealth that biotechnological innovation will bring in--turned into unemployed riffraff.

It turns out that if we had more personal freedoms, we'd have more state monies and could educate ourselves to develop our potential as free human beings.

In the past 40 years, the snowball has been going in the other direction-- fewer personal freedoms, a vast gulag of the incarcerated, and less and less state money for the development of the minds of the public. We've built ourselves a big ignorant prison, with a loud-mouthed fundamentalist preacher for a warden, and called it America.

We should legalize pot, and tax the resulting industry. We should repeal mandatory sentencing guidelines and develop rehabilitation strategies rather than putting the ill-behaved in expensive state hotels. And we should go back to having state-funded state universities.

[machI]

1. It is also time to stop arresting and imprisoning people for burning a naturally growing weed

I can only imagine how many promising young college students that have been ruined for life by being busted for pot. They go from hitting the books to the inside of a jail cell because they were hitting the bong.

We stifle some of our best young minds and then wonder how these religious fundamentalists have acquired so much power.

[tblue37]

7. And once that conviction is on their record, all sorts of doors

are forever closed. Even a misdemeanor conviction for possessing a small amount of pot for personal use can close doors forever. The hypocrisy is staggering, of course, since a lot of the people who arrest, try, convict, and even guard pot smokers in prisons are users themselves.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Interesting factoid from about 10 years ago

I read a report on the impact of California's 3-strikes law, which showed that the amount of funding added to the correctional systems' budget was almost exactly the amount of funding the state took away from education.

[amdezurik]

3. well you see to be a teacher you have to WORK

to be a prison guard not so much...

[n2doc]

4. Oh, I'm sure they work hard

But they aren't producing anything of value! A teacher (at least, any halfway decent one) will produce a more educated populace, who are then enabled to work better/smarter. A guard watches over the deterioration/degradation of said populace leaving people with fewer legal skillsets and fewer job opportunities.

Not surprising that the US is having a hard time. When you take a significant portion of your workforce and turn them into animals that tends to happen.

[amdezurik]

5. all they are for now is to produce slave labor...

[n2doc]

6. kick n/t

[annabanana]

8. Juan Cole just makes too much sense for this Country. .

The reallocation of America's resources is a massive undertaking. The impetus MUST come from below, as politicians hardly EVER lead. The most effective politicians figure out which way people are going and then jump in front of them with a flag.

[eridani]

9. Our prison-industrial complex has imposed a GI Bill in reverse on our society

Instead of sending a lot more people to college, like in the 40s and 50s, at government expense, we spend even more money to deskill our population.