Obama Goes to Prison, And That's a Good Thing (Wait. What?!?)

See http://www.teabreakfast.com/school-to-prison-pipeline-facts/ for the source of this relevant cartoon.

President Obama recently visited El Reno federal prison. Most reports indicate he is the first standing president to do so. Who knew he'd get there before Bush and Cheney, eh?

Maybe, just maybe, seeing one of the stages of the school-to-prison pipeline in person will help him see that what he's doing in K12 education is part of the problem too.

While some of his commentary leading up to the visit focused on people of color in prison, I appreciated how some of his comments were race-neutral. Though he's right to mention Black and Latino youth as particularly at risk given police treatment and schooling ecologies sometimes averse to their successes, I hope, as he considers prison populations, he does bother to ask himself these questions in addition to others: 

1. What is the socioeconomic conditions of those white youths who end up in prison too? 

2. What are the common factors of inequity inherent across prison populations? 

3. How are my education policies contributing to the problems I see in prison systems and their inmate population?

I hope he sees that the majority of social issues associated with schooling and prisoning have a basis in economics. In poverty and having needs met or denied. He seems to get that. Let's see where he goes from here. 

Click these links for more details about his historic visit and its possible ramifications: Here, here, and here. 

For more on the school-to-prison pipeline, click here.