New PSA: Educate Us, Or Else

A new PSA from an education advocacy campaign puts kids in prison to paint a stark picture of the high costs we pay for failing to fix our public education system. An elementary-age boy stands at the center of this shiny video in an orange prison jumpsuit, telling viewers that states use third-grade reading test scores to predict future prison growth (not true, more below), and that a million kids drop out of high school each year, and those kids are eight times more likely to go to prison (possibly true, more below).

It's a stark image and powerful call for education reform from the Rethink Learning Now campaign, and it's worth a watch. It would be better, however, if its math wasn't so fuzzy.

There's a small factual problem in the video. The claim that many states plan their prison beds based on third-grade test scores is a popular one to toss around, but it has been handily debunked. The researcher often credited with coining the phrase told the Washington Post in June that it is untrue.

"It's catchy," said Peter E. Leone, director of the National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice at the University of Maryland, often cited as the source of the link. "And it's totally bogus."

But as the defensive pundits in the WaPo story point out, the heart of this myth is in the right place. When kids' performance in school starts to slip, they are more likely to go to prison. (Different sources say high school dropouts are three, five or eight times more likely to go to prison, this video opts for the high end of that field).

I wish the video's math wasn't fuzzy, but it makes a good point overall through stark images. Our broken education system is a pipeline to prison, and fixing it will enrich lives and end the last generation's historic prison expansion.