On Oct. 17 the Register-Guard published an editorial piece written by Mr. Hacelroad and Mr. Marquis, stating that Measure 11 brings justice and a lower crime rate. I would like to question one of their key assumptions .
They cite figures, which show that only about 15 percent of the Oregon general budget goes to prisons, police, public defenders and for district attorneys such as Hacelroad and Marquis, while 56 percent of the budget goes for education. What level of education are they referring to in their argument? K-12? Higher education? Community colleges? All of the above?
Education is a good investment of taxpayer money because of a number of factors. According to the information contained in the U.S. Census, college graduates earn about $1 million more in lifetime earnings, about 62 percent more per year than people with a high school education only. Given the fact that they pay far more in taxes, educated citizens with a good job make a much higher contribution to the revenue stream, which provides the backing for all expenditures from the general budget of the state of Oregon.
In addition, educated citizens are far less likely to end up committing the very crimes that provide Hacelroad and Marquis with their positions and income. Educated people are less likely to be dependent on the government for food stamps, public housing and welfare, all of which greatly cost governments and taxpayers.
A more valid comparison for this purpose is to compare the state and local expenditures for one level of education with the 15 percent figure given. For instance, let us compare the cost to taxpayers of Lane County for public safety and for funding of Lane Community College, and the return to the community from each one. Seventy percent of the general budget of Lane County goes for public safety. Given the fact that many of the people arrested, convicted and incarcerated for property crimes are people with a low level of education and marketable skills, when released, those people are very likely to return to the same behavior patterns that landed them in jail in the first place.
If the same tax revenue used to support this warehousing of people were to be spent on the workforce development programs offered by Lane Community College, perhaps this cycle of crime and incarceration could be broken. Educated people with marketable skills benefit society and make economic contributions in all areas of our economy, as well as benefiting themselves. Money spent on community college has a return on that investment. Money spent on jails does not, and it is therefore an expense, not an investment.
G. Dennis Shine lives in Springfield