US local and state govternments spend three times more on jails than on education – officials

‘Over three decades, state and local governments have tripled the amount spent on jails, compared to spending on educating students, the US Department of Education has revealed.
The department’s brief released on Thursday examined corrections spending and education spending from 1979 to 1980 and 2012 to 2013.
It found that spending on elementary and secondary education across the US increased by 107 percent “from $258 to 534 billion” while total state and local corrections expenditures increased by 324 percent “from $17 billion to 71 billion – triple the rate of increase in education spending,” stated the report.’
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