Those who serve time in prison are more likely to have missed out on educational opportunities, as revealed in research done by the Prison Policy Initiative. Areas lacking proper education will typically experience higher prison rates as well as higher unemployment rates. A Maryland woman is speaking up after she did her research and discovered some alarming trends. For instance, how there’s a connection between higher prison rates and a lack of an education system.
TikToker Tiffany shared a montage of articles explaining how a billionaire monopolist has control over the American education system. In 2021, Platinum Equity acquired McGraw Hill for several billion dollars; Platinum is owned by Tom Gores. Now, the alarming thing about Tom Gores is known for making some “horrifying investments, especially in the for-profit prison system,” according to Tiffany.
Tiffany explains Gores now owns McGraw Hill, Jostens, and Lifescan—several companies related to education, and probably heard of. They’re in charge of school textbooks, graduation memorabilia, and photographing children. On top of these companies, they’ve also invested in Securus Technologies. According to Tiffany, Securus Technologies was sued. The company stopped in-person visits and made it extremely difficult for families to afford calling someone in prison.
As Tiffany puts it, “If you didn’t have money, you didn’t get to see your children anymore.” It turned human contact into a profit. And what’s important when you’re incarcerated is having “a strong support and family network, they are much more likely to actually reform themselves and do better coming out of prison later,” Tiffany states. In other words, better education will prevent more children from heading to prison.
Another alarming point the TikToker brings up is the conflict of interest of Gores having control over the education system and the prison system. When prisons are built, they tend to be in areas with lower reading levels. And if fewer children know how to read, then their chances of ending up in prison as an adult go up. “That’s how they choose where to build for-profit prisons,” says Tiffany.
One person commented, “0.1% of America controlling 100% of America.”
Another individual shared, “As an educator, I am telling you that they are changing the curriculum right before your eyes. Children have significantly decreased in literacy and math. It’s a pipeline to prison and it’s also a pipeline to warehouses.”
It’s a brutal reality, but necessary to talk about. The big picture is seeing that prisons can profit off of failing students and their suffering. What kind of solution is that?
