Starting in the fall, Philadelphia schools will make up a $304 million shortfall by cutting things like new books, paper, librarians, art & music programs, secretaries, and classroom aides. Luckily, there is $400 million available to build a brand new prison.
“I am worried sick,” school principal Lisa Ciaranca Kaplan told the New York Times. “How do I relieve teachers for lunch if I have no one in the lunchroom? I’ll be the only person in this building who’s not in a class.”
Kaplan’s Andrew Jackson School in South Philadelphia serves 410 students, speaking 14 languages, all of whom qualify for free meals.
“Do we just want a building that houses children until they get to the new prison they’re building?” she said.
I think that's the plan. Disgusting.
In Texas, students as young as 12 are being arrested and handcuffed at school for missing class or showing up late. Around 36,000 students were prosecuted last year and 2.9 million in fines were collected from those who were convicted.
Students as young as 12 can be arrested and handcuffed at school. Once they turn 17, they can be jailed for failing to pay past fines, which can run into thousands of dollars, according to the complaint, which was drafted by the National Center for Youth Law and advocacy groups Texas Appleseed and Disability Rights Texas.
"I'm getting treated like a criminal," Ashley Brown, 16, one of the complainants, told Reuters late on Monday. She said she had been erroneously sent to truancy court for four excused absences after her grandmother's death.
