Spending on state and local prisons has increased at triple the rate of funding for public education over the last three decades, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Department of Education.

The report, released Thursday, shows that that even when population changes are factored in, 23 states increased per capita spending on corrections at more than double the rate of increases in per-pupil spending on schools, from preschool through grade 12. And seven states – Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia -- increased their corrections budgets more than five times as fast.

"Budgets reflect our values, and the trends revealed in this analysis are a reflection of our nation's priorities that should be revisited," said Secretary of Education John King.

Department of Education



The report comes nearly a year after former education secretary Arne Duncan urged states and local school districts to find paths other than incarceration for people convicted of nonviolent crimes, something that the department says could save upwards of $15 billion each year, which could then be used to increase pay for teachers.

"We must choose to make more investments in our children's future," said King on Thursday, echoing Duncan's plea. "We need to invest more in prevention than in punishment, to invest more in schools, not prisons."

Specifically, from the 1979-1980 school year until the 2012-2013 school year, state and local expenditures for preschool to grade 12 doubled, from $258 to $534 billion, while total state and local expenditures for corrections quadrupled from $17 to $71 billion.

All states had lower spending growth rates for education than for corrections, the report shows, and in the majority of the states, the rate of increase for corrections spending was more than 100 percentage points higher than the growth rate for education.

The report comes on the heels of a push by the Obama administration to reduce recidivism in the criminal justice system, which includes, among other things allowing prisoners to tap federal financial aid to take college classes.

"For three decades, our country has prioritized spending on prisons instead of classrooms," said Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama. "We can no longer afford this failure to invest in opportunity, only to lock up people once they've dropped out of school and turned to crime."

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