California Spending More on Prisons Than on Education

We have lived 2 separate places in California and have experience some of the worst schools (n extremely wealthy areas) and some of the best schools. Just like every school district, it's all about how the Principal leads, how strong the PTA is and how strong the Parent participation is for the school. We lived right outside of Monterey, CA from May 2009-June2011. The Elementary school there was horrible. After a full school year, we pulled my son and started homeschooling. The Principal lacked guidance, the teachers were worn down (too many kids per class and kids with varying levels of education), there were a lot of behavioral issues and bullying was rampant (even thought there was a 0 tolerance policy). In June 2011 we moved to Texas. I was SHOCKED! We had lived in Texas after Hurricane Katrina in the Katy area for about 6 months. My husband and I had transferred to a different branch of the company we worked for until the branch we were with reopened. The school my son attended was awesome. They were so far ahead of his school in Louisiana. They diagnosed his reading problem and had him in a special program within a week. Something we had worked with his other school over a year to get done. The teachers cared, they did a lot for those kids. Last year, this was not the case. The schools were scary. I thought the school we pulled him from was bad, these schools were much worse AND dangerous! We moved back to California in April to a different area. The schools here are much better than the ones we had experienced before in California. They have a lot of pride, a lot of technology in the schools, ect. The teacher have a lot of pride in what they do. We are still, however, homeschooling because my son has responded so well to it. We are attached to a local school which specializes in homeschooling. The scariest thing to me, however, is the comments I hear from parents who have kids who attend the local middle schools. They complain that the classes move to quickly and they have to write something every week. The work load their kids have is nothing. My sons curriculum has a much heavier work load and progresses quicker. The bar is set much higher. Why aren't all of the kids pushed the same way? They need to excel.

This is really not a good situation. It doesn't say good things about the future, or the ability to keep people from following paths that lead to prison.

This is just another example of how messed up this country is. Priorities are not where they should be. Although I do think prison guards do deserve a decent salary because they literally put their lives at risk every day. If the security in the prison goes down it could be very dangerous for them. My brother in law used to be a prison guard and their security system went down and there was a riot. He didn't get seriously hurt but a lot of other guards did and prisoners as well. I believe that some of the funding the prisons get should come from work release programs and in prison work programs. That would take some of the responsibility out of the hands of tax payers so that, that tax money could be used for other things such as schools.

You forgot to mention that the State of California has also lowered it's educational standards in the effort of "no child gets left behind" which itself is not a good thing if you ask me. Education is a key to future success and growth, California is facing a severe brain drain as is with a lot of successful people leaving for cheaper states the last thing we need is less educated people coming through the ranks(through no fault of their own).