Alabama Spending on Education vs. Corrections

Education and corrections statistics from Alabama show the state spends nearly double per prisoner than it does per student.

In 2008, the per-pupil funding rate was $9,950, according to GOVERNING data. It dropped to $8,755 in 2013. Between 2008 and 2014, Alabama cut per-pupil funding by 17.8 percent, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported; only Oklahoma cut its per-pupil funding rate more than that, with 23.6 percent.

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In 2010, the state-funded per pupil rate for students in kindergarten through grade 12 was $9,480. That same year, according to Vera Institute of Justice data, the state paid out an average of $17,285 per prisoner, nearly double what it paid for each student’s education.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an estimated 6.9 million people across the country were under the supervision of an adult correctional facility at the end of 2013. In the fall of 2014, an estimated 49.8 million students nationwide attended public elementary and secondary schools, and another 5 million attended private schools.

With education taking budgetary hits across the country, the disparity between what our nation is spending on education versus corrections is growing larger.

Nationally, students who drop out of school before obtaining their diploma are three-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested than their peers who continue on and graduate. Across the U.S., 68 percent of male inmates do not have a high school diploma, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

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