The economy sucks. It's tough to keep the job you have, let alone find a new one. And if it seems that college is getting more expensive to boot, you'd be right. But who knew that it might have anything to do with prisons?

First, the nationwide scene: median tuition and fees for undergraduates has risen from $2,400 in 2000 to $3,700 in 2008. As if that wasn't bad enough, the average price of textbooks topped $900 a year in 2008, and is growing at about 6% per annum.

So while news that the University of California Board Of Regents approved a 32% increase in undergraduate tuition isn't a big surprise, it's obviously a huge burden for those who are already struggling to get by. Their parents had it a lot easier: the average cost of attending one year school at a public university in the state has gone from $685 in 1979 to a  projected $10,000+ with the proposed increase for 2010.

The worst of it: California faces a $21.5 billion deficit over the next year and a half.

So how can they make up the difference? One answer might lie in how their budget it prioritized. According to the Associated Press, California spends more on its 167,000 prisoners than it does on the 226,000 students in its 10-campus University of California system. The $10.8 billion budget for corrections has also increased four times over in the last 30 years. The state took notice: they recently submitted a plan to cut their prison population by 44,000.

The lesson here is elementary: when there's an overall budget shortage, you need to make careful cuts and thoughtfully re-evaluate how much money will be spent in which areas. But if you get sloppy, never fear! You could always sell your unwanted livestock to make up the difference.

--Brandon

picture 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hisgett/ / CC BY 2.0