American Voice: THE NONEXISTENCE OF EDUCATION

THE NONEXISTENCE OF EDUCATION

Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Unknown in Labels: crime, education, high school, imprison, inmate, jail, juvenile, poverty, prison, statistics

I'm sure that most of us would agree by now that lack of education is the primary source of lack of success for individuals in the inner cities. The statistics below simply provide visual evidence to support the argument that education is needed to bridge the gap between inner city areas and the rest of the nation.

16% of Americans have not completed high school.
75% of state prisoners have not completed high school.
67% of jailed inmates have not completed high school.

In my opinion, the three bullets listed above are painfully revealing.

Now think about this:

84% of all Americans have at least completed high school; the violent crime rate for the U.S. is 469 per 100,000 individuals.
The ten states with the largest percentage of population with a at least a high school diploma is a high 91.5%; the violent crime rate for these ten states is 305 per 100,000 individuals (below the national average.)
The ten states with the smallest percentage of population with at least a high school diploma is 80.5%; the violent crime rate for these states is 488 per 100,000 individuals (above the national average.)

The nation spends an average of $9,644 a year to educate a student. The average annual cost per inmate is $22,600. The U.S. spent almost $50 billion dollars in incarceration costs in 2004. The Coalition for Juvenile Justice reports that high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely to be arrested than high school graduates. Can you say wasteful spending?

Here is the financial status of those that lack in education: