Bernie Sanders: Here's what has to change in South Carolina and the nation

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

These dynamics have reached crisis levels in South Carolina, where public schools lag behind national averages in reading, writing and job preparedness. Many schools are racially segregated, and magnet and charter schools are drawing resources and high-performing students away. Meanwhile, amid cuts in funding for school programs, one in five children in South Carolina is going without meals.

This year, the situation has become an emergency. The start of school saw a 16 percent increase in unfilled teacher vacancies, and teacher pay was well below the national average. Adding insult to injury, under President Trump’s new budget, South Carolina would lose $28 million of grants to help high-poverty schools boost teacher salaries. Overall, South Carolina’s public education system would lose roughly $246 million under the Trump budget, denying 14,000 students access to after-school programs.

(snip)

What’s truly shameful is that last year, South Carolina spent $11,552 on average per student, while spending $21,756 on average per prison inmate – nearly twice as much. It makes absolutely no sense that Republican leaders in South Carolina, and other parts of the country, would invest more in keeping people in prison than in keeping them in school.

(snip)

I will also work to reform our broken criminal justice system. Right now, we are spending $80 billion a year to lock up 2.2 millions people, hundreds of thousands of whom have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can't afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty. And because of the historical legacy of racism in this country, we are disproportionately criminalizing people of color.

(snip)

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/2019/04/18/bernie-sanders-heres-what-has-change-south-carolina-and-nation/3495182002/

[WeekiWater]

1. This is a really poor comparison.

What’s truly shameful is that last year, South Carolina spent $11,552 on average per student, while spending $21,756 on average per prison inmate – nearly twice as much. It makes absolutely no sense that Republican leaders in South Carolina, and other parts of the country, would invest more in keeping people in prison than in keeping them in school.

I get why he does it. He is tailoring his message toward a certain segment. I'm sure others do similar things.

It's great that he is hitting on these topics. Most all of our contenders are addressing these issues in a very good way. I would really like to see one of them take on Jim Webb as an adviser for criminal justice reform.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Why is it a poor comparison?

[dsc]

5. To be fair we are taking care of an inmate 24/7 vs 8 hours 5 days per week

so the inmate should be some what more expensive.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Then reducing our world leading prison population by ending the "war on drugs," justice reform

and investing in education to give the impoverished, rural areas and the middle class better opportunities, greater choice and in effect more freedom would reduce the need for more prisons along with 24/7 guards, would it not?

[dsc]

8. I agree we have too many prisoners

but no matter how many we actually have, the cost per prisoner will likely be higher than that of a year of high school education.

[Uncle Joe]

9. If you have fewer prisoners, then it goes to follow you need fewer prisons and guards,

so the the monies saved from that could be redirected toward education.

Step back from the tree and look at the forest.

[dsc]

10. you still would be spending more per individual prisoner than individual student

less money divided by fewer people keeps the average amount spent roughly the same.

[Uncle Joe]

12. No it would change, Bernie didn't make that statement in a vacuum.

Increasing teacher pay for one would help close that gap.

Across this country, teachers have been on strike because they are badly underpaid. They lack basic supplies, work in rundown classrooms, and their professional expertise is undermined by excessive standardized testing that takes the joy out of learning. Far too many are leaving the profession entirely.

(snip)

This year, the situation has become an emergency. The start of school saw a 16 percent increase in unfilled teacher vacancies, and teacher pay was well below the national average. Adding insult to injury, under President Trump’s new budget, South Carolina would lose $28 million of grants to help high-poverty schools boost teacher salaries. Overall, South Carolina’s public education system would lose roughly $246 million under the Trump budget, denying 14,000 students access to after-school programs.

This endemic lack of investment in teachers, public schools, and educational opportunity is particularly acute in rural communities. Kids are starting kindergarten without basic skills: Some do not know how to recite the alphabet or spell their own names.

(snip)

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/2019/04/18/bernie-sanders-heres-what-has-change-south-carolina-and-nation/3495182002/

Having said that the average is not so important as the humanitarian shift in policies in total dollars spent.

We can either keep funneling our tax dollar monies to a 21st century form of slavery which in turn has a dampening effect on wages of free Americans or help our fellow Americans rise while making our nation stronger as whole.

[WeekiWater]

6. Love the reply.

Out. Of. The. Park.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. Thanks for another excellent post Uncle Joe. With progressive policies like these...

there will be no stoppin the people's revolution that Bernie has started. It's little wonder Bernie continues to gain in popularity by the day.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Uncle Joe]

3. Thank you InAbLuEsTaTe.

[BlueFlorida]

11. More pandering to black voters

by a man who voted for the 1994 crime bill.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. Lol. As opposed to writing it? Is this a Poe?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

26. LOL is RIGHT!!! Couldn't stop laughing!!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Uncle Joe]

15. Do you mean the 1994 Crime Bill that Joe Biden wrote?

Biden 1994 Crime Bill
Sponsored by Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was originally written by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and then was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. ... The bill also required states to establish registries for sexual offenders by September 1997.
Public law: Pub.L. 103–322
Long title: An Act to Control and Prevent Crime
Enacted by: the 103rd United States Congress
U.S.C. sections created: 42 U.S.C. ch. 136
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act
Search for: Biden 1994 Crime Bill

Apparently this hasn't stopped you from supporting him, why is that?

[BlueFlorida]

19. Joe doesn't pander and chase photo-ops nt

[Uncle Joe]

20. Speaking to the people about the issues and policies you support isn't pandering, it's called

campaigning, of course as Biden isn't actually running I can understand your confusion.

[BlueFlorida]

21. When someone consistently ignores the existence

of social and racial injustice, focusing only on economic justice for years ... and then suddenly wakes up in an early Southern state to talk about social and racial justice .... it fits the definition of pandering.

[Autumn]

22. Maybe not right now but he will if he ever decide to announce he's running and starts chasing

his photo ops and pandering to the crowds. It's called campaigning, all of our candidates do it. Bernie and Biden campaigning doesn't change the fact that Joe Biden had a big hand in writing the 1994 crime bill.

[BlueFlorida]

23. Joe will campaign on issues he has always championed

He won't suddenly change his positions state by state.

[Autumn]

24. One of the chief complaints about Bernie is that his speeches are always the same.

[BlueFlorida]

25. Today's was different

Suddenly he had an epiphany about social and racial justice ... in South Carolina.

[Autumn]

27. Actually that's not a new epiphany, he's been hitting that note for some time now. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. Yeah here was his "sudden epiphany"

[Blue_Tires]

13. At least he actually mentioned the racism this time

so I'll take my little victories where I find them

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. Can we count on your support then?

[Blue_Tires]

18. I voted for him in the '16 Va. Primaries, bro

And when he dropped out I immediately switched over to Hillary even though I wasn't able to say the same of all the other Sanders fans I knew then.

And just like every goddamn election (except 2000 when I was young and stupid) I promise to put my full unequivocal support and volunteer efforts behind *whoever* the Dem nominee is, even if it's Kremlinist nutbars like Gravel or Tulsi...

Granted, I don't think Sanders has a snowball's chance since this field is MUCH stronger, younger and more diverse and his campaign is already making a lot of the same mistakes I called them out for in '16, but if he does I'll fall in line because that's what good Dems do.

[loyalsister]

17. ++++

Major criminal justice reform needs to be an intrinsic part of the Democratic platform..... in all 50 states at every level of elected office.