ACLU Comment on Education Secretary's Call to Invest in Teachers Instead of Prisons
WASHINGTON — U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave a speech at the National Press Club calling upon the country to invest in teachers instead of prisons. He said it was time to set “a different direction as a society, a different priority — one that says we believe in great teaching early in our kids’ lives, rather than courts, jails and prisons later.”
Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, said:
“Secretary Duncan offers a wise prescription for ending the school-to-prison pipeline and investing in the future of our students and nation. The relationship between America’s failure to provide equal educational opportunities for children of color and the overrepresentation of people of color in our prisons is clear and tragic. Diverting funding from incarceration to education and tackling bias in school discipline will help break this chain once and for all.”
More information about the school-to-prison pipeline is at: https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline
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