Build a Prison Close a School: 54 schools closed in Chicago (88% black), 23 closed in Philadelphia (81% black), 26 in New York (60% black).  What’s the difference between the Democrats and Republicans again I forgot? Hundreds of teachers and school staff are being laid off in two of the largest cities in the country — both run by Democrats.  In Chicago and Philadelphia, a total of 4,633 people, including many teachers, will lose their jobs.
Both cities, run by Democrats, claim they are closing schools because they need the money.  Yet near both cities, money for prisons is somehow found.  In Philadelphia, Republican Governor Tom Corbett magically found $400 million for State Correctional Institutions Phoenix I and II which will be the second most expensive prison complex in the state’s history.   But the will to build prisons is not just a Republicans obsession.
Plenty of political energy by various Democrats, and the Obama Administration, is going into continuing to fund federal prisons in Illinois and Chicago.  For three years straight, the Obama Administration has requested more money for federal prisons. In this year’s budget request, the Obama Administration asked for a budget increase for the third year in a row.  The federal prison budget is now $8.6 billion.  Obama has now surpassed Bush in funding prisons and the number of federal prisons incarcerated — 219,000 — half on drug related crimes.