Political Economy -- Education, Prison, Pot & Health

[olmandude]

Juan Cole, University of Michigan History Professor, writes "State Universities versus State Prisons; And Marijuana Legalization as a Solution" http://www.juancole.com/2008/12/state-universities-versus-state-prisons.html#commentsRead more... )

Comments

[peebs1701]

The state budget is messed up on a variety of levels. Not only are we spending more and more on our prison system, but even that isn't enough because our prisons are at double capacity. There was recently a riot a Folsom State Prison and once I saw that there were twice as many people in there as it was designed for I was surprised they didn't happen more often. Then there's the school problem which is made worse by so much money (in the CSU system at least) going toward massively inflated administrator salaries. And the budget is so bad this year that the whole CSU system is turning away students who qualify. It's a good thing I started at CSU last year, because if I tried to apply now I wouldn't be able to get in. I still haven't finished my lower division GE. And they're canceling classes, having larger classes, and raising tuition. They're even raising parking prices, it was $3.50 to park last quarter, it's $5 to park now