Thursday, November 20, 1997
USAC attacks state’s spending priorities
CAMPAIGN: Activists say California allocates too much money to
prisons
By Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
Believe it or not, prisons directly affect students, and the
undergraduate student council (USAC) has launched a program
designed to tell you why.
USAC is currently holding presentations on the issue of prisons
vs. education, and how funding for prisons and prisoners has
surpassed the amount spent on education.
According to booklets distributed during the presentations,
California spends almost $27,898 per year on each inmate and only
$12,005 on each UC student.
"The money that is going to fund prisons can be used on higher
education or health care," said USAC President Kandea Mosley.
"Where are the nation’s priorities?"
Organized by offices of the USAC president and external vice
president (EVP), the prison vs. education presentations are one
part of a larger program appropriately titled "Education
Campaigns."
This campaign embodies a wide range of subjects and issues that
deal with students and Californians.
"The goal of the Education Campaigns is to raise awareness on
campus and for students to take seriously issues that affect our
lives on a broad scale," Mosley said.
"(It is to) bring to light issues that are seriously affecting
California," she added.
Presentations on prisons vs. education have already begun this
week with talks with the California Public Interest Research Group
(CalPIRG), the Latin American Students Association and various
other student advocacy groups and student organizations.
USAC’s main concern is that funding for prisons and prisoners
surpasses the amount spent on education.
Also addressed by this series of presentations is the perceived
need to change existing legislation such as the Three Strikes Law,
which many USAC members feel helps to funnel people into already
overcrowded prisons.
This overcrowding, in turn, has required increasing prison
construction, which has surpassed the building of universities over
the past 15 years.
Since 1982, 15 new prisons have been built compared to only one
new public university.
"Money going to prisons should go to higher education to expand
education so that people don’t turn to a life of crime," Mosley
said.
Part of this program also entails conducting roving interviews
where students will be videotaped and asked their opinions about
prisons vs. education.
A petition is also being circulated where students can declare
their opposition to the prioritization of prisons over
education.
The series of presentations on prisons vs. education will be
closed with USAC’s Grassroots Organizing Weekend (GROW).
GROW has been held at UCLA for four years now and this year’s
focus will be on how to "organize around the expanding prison
system, and how it’s jeopardizing education," said EVP Stacy
Lee.
Co-sponsored by the UC Student Association, U.S. Student
Association and various other national groups, GROW is a weekend
where students will have the opportunity to learn how to organize
and strategize effectively.
Participation from student leaders, community activists and
trainers will help students build strong, lasting coalitions and
strengthen existing organizations.
"We’re trying to raise awareness about prisons and education and
how community and student leaders can collaborate and beat this
problem," Lee said.