Reprinted from The Fresno Bee – By Charles B. Reed, CSU Chancellor

It is natural for educators to be optimistic. That optimism allows us to see the potential in our students and embrace new fields of study. That optimism is also the reason I hold out hope that California will meaningfully reinvest in public colleges and universities.

California is not making that investment today. Rather the state has invested in failure.

California spends about $47,000 per inmate in state prisons, while spending less than $8,000 per California State University student. Yet, the CSU is slated for a $500 million cut next year — an approximately $20 million cut for Fresno State. In the meantime, prison spending is proposed to remain essentially flat.

The CSU has sacrificed by absorbing a drastic cut while still serving as many students as we can without abandoning a quality education. The university does so in the hopes that soon the tides will turn and that public higher education will be treated as a valued investment in this state.

Clearly, the governor and legislature are in a difficult position. California faces a daunting budget deficit. To his credit, Gov. Jerry Brown seems interested in taking that budget deficit on without the tricks of the past. The governor’s proposal to limit cuts in K-12 education is admirable.

However, there is a saying about character: “A person is not defined by what they do when things are easy, but rather what they do when things are difficult.” How should we judge our state government’s priorities in this difficult budget situation? What does it say about society when inmates are valued more than students?

The relationship between universities and prisons is more direct than one might think. Higher education may be among the best crime-prevention programs. Compared to high school graduates, bachelor’s degree holders are 92% less likely to be incarcerated. In specific numbers, the national incarceration rate for high school graduates is 12 per 1,000, yet for those with bachelor’s degrees it falls to one per 1,000.

The choice between incarceration and education affects every household in California. There is a fundamental social cost for incarceration, and a fundamental social benefit to higher education.

Inmates are a drain on society. While incarcerated, the state is responsible for all inmate housing, food and health costs in addition to guarding the prison population.

After leaving prison, former inmates are often confined to low-wage, menial jobs with low social or economic return. Even if an inmate serves time, gets out and never commits another crime (a regrettably rare outcome), that person is likely to still be dependent on state social services.

University students, in contrast, are a net plus to society. They constitute a work force for high-wage, high-demand industries that attract businesses to the state and allow new industries to form.

This educated work force powers the economic engine that creates jobs at all levels of the economy. College education is a statewide jobs program, with permanent and increasing social returns for a relatively small investment.

California at one time had a farsighted Master Plan for Higher Education. The state made a promise to all students that they would have the opportunity to go to college and earn a degree.

The economic crisis is now an excuse for failing to fund the California Master Plan and invest in the educational infrastructure of this state. This is ironic, because an economic crisis is absolutely the wrong time to shrink public higher education.

The road to recovery and lasting prosperity runs straight through the campuses of the CSU, University of California and community colleges. Collectively these university and college campuses fuel the economic engines of California. They bring federal and private research dollars that fuel innovation, attract the businesses that fuel job growth and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit that has fueled advances in agriculture, computing, green energy and biotechnology.

Budgets are about choices, and California faces a choice: Invest in the future or invest in failure.

Charles B. Reed is the chancellor of the California State University system.