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AGENDA ITEMS
Schools First, Not Prisons
State Budget Starves Higher Education to Feed A Bloated Prison System Download these Talking Points
We Need to Talk With Our Legislators
The Michigan state budget has been devastated by more than the current economic crisis. As we confront growing unemployment and falling tax revenues, we also have to rethink Michigan’s budget priorities and the diminished resources we are wasting on our bloated prison system.
We have become a garrison state devoted to the warehousing of prisoners, more than half of them incarcerated for non-violent crimes. There is an obvious need for prisons to house convicted criminals and protect citizens from unacceptable risk. But no other state in the mid-west squanders anything like the resources we waste on our prisons. In the meantime, funding for Wayne State and other universities has declined sharply.
The Consequences for Higher Education:
- While the state budget for prisons grew by $261million between 2001 and 2007, thestate budget for higher education fell by $183 million.
- State funding for public universities has fallen to $5,673 per student, down from $6,853 in 2001.
- State funding has fallen from 48% of university operating budgets in 2000 to only 33% in 2007. University tuition rose by 9% a year since 2001 to cover the decline in state funding.
- In 1996, a WSU undergraduate taking 31 credits paid $3,550 in tuition; by the fall of 2008, the same number of credits cost an average of $8,085.
- Michigan is now below the national average for the number of residents who have higher education degrees.
The Alternatives for Michigan:
- Bring Michigan’s parole and sentencing guidelines into alignment with those in surrounding states. We can safely release prisoners who have served their minimum sentence, have a record of good behavior, and have family and community support for their re-entry. With the same incarceration rate as surrounding states, the estimated savings to the state budget range as high as $500 million.
- As a start, House Bill 4548 was passed in November, 2008, to reform parole guidelines and provide a limited appeal mechanism for those denied parole. It is now before the Senate. By one estimate, these reforms could reduce the prison population by 4,600 and save more than $114 million.
- House Bill 4263 would restore “good time” credit for sentence reduction. Introduced in 2007, the bill has not been released by the House Judiciary Committee for a vote.
- As the Corrections budget is pared to the size of surrounding states, there should be matching efforts to reduce Corrections personnel through attrition, combined with efforts to retrain and reassign individuals to the necessary (and more cost-effective) tasks related to the expanded Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative.
What can you do?
Whether you want to become actively
involved with the PAC or would like to make your voice heard by
sending emails or letters, the PAC committee has many ways for you
to make a stand.
Join the PAC
Contact Dan Golodner or contact the union office
for information on when the next PAC meeting is and what committees
you might be interested in. Above all attend the meetings to learn
more so you can talk to your co-workers about issues facing our
union and WSU. Remember, attending a PAC meeting also counts as
WSU service.
AAUP-AFT Office: aaupaft@wayne.edu
Dan Golodner: ad6292@wayne.edu
Send an email
to your state legislator
http://www.unionvoice.org/aftmichigan/home.html
Go back to the
top of the page.
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