While you are in school, some days it feels like you’ll never escape. School feels like a prison sometimes, with a sentence that ends so far in the future, it seems like you’ll never get out. There’s actually been a fair amount of thought on the topic by education reformers, a sample of which you can see in this blog post by Deborah Meier(who for the record I really admire) about the similarities between public schools and prisons.

I am a licensed teacher and school media specialist, as well as a former public school student, and with most public schools, I think the benefits of making a free education available(as restrictive as it can sometimes be) outweigh the negatives (although the word FREE to me does not mean education constrained by centralized standardized testing). At least, I thought so until this open letter to Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan from the superintendent of the Ithaca Schools appeared in the Gratriot County Herald on May 12. You’ll have to scroll down the page to see his entire letter, but here’s the essential part:

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison.

Oh, Governor Snyder… Couldn’t you give these kids the same advantages prisoners have now? Why wait until they’ve been convicted and incarcerated to give them access to a library, information, and education?