I give presentations at Chambers of Commerce, Rotaries, etc. Frequently, the business and political people at these meetings cite the cost of education.
Someone should explain to me why we measure the cost of education but not the cost of incarceration? According to the New York Times, inn 20113, NYS spent $11,072 in districts in the 10 percentile and $21,135 in districts in the 90th percentile. But the cost of incarceration in NYS in 2013 was $60,000. According to NewYorkupstate.com was $69,355 per prisoner, per year. or nearly 3 times more than the cost of education. The budget for NYS per year is $3,688,356,319. Research indicates that 80 percent of prisoners are school dropouts and the recidivism rate is 80 percent. So education is not expensive – ignorance is!