In this report, the NAACP compiled research and data from various sources to show that, for years, many states have spent increasing amounts of their discretionary funds on prisons and less of that money on education.
The NAACP (along with several fiscally conservative groups and former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige) presented the report in Washington on April 7, aiming to persuade legislators and policymakers to shift more of those funds to education.
The report says that in 2009, as state general fund spending declined for kindergarten through 12th grade education and higher education, 33 states spent a bigger slice of their discretionary budgets on prisons than they had in 2008.
