Dysfunction

DYSFUNCTION

Now that we have a newly organized federal government for the next two years, we must deal with some real problems:

--300,000 Americans a year are lost to drugs, alcohol and suicide, “deaths of despair.”

--In 2020 there were approximately 580,000 homeless in the US, 161,000 in California alone.

--In 2020 5.5 million persons were under the supervision of adult correctional systems in the US.

--In 2022 only 33% of fourth graders were proficient in reading, 36% in math; in the 8th grade 31% were proficient in reading and 26% in math.

The US is planning to spend $858 billion on the military in 2023 and $772 billion on domestic programs. Don’t the above statistics show that our priorities need rearranging?

(Source: The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof article, 12/11/22; US Facts from HUD, 2020; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Dept. of Justice, 2020; National Center for Educational Statistic, 2022)