State Education Budgets Across the Country Are in Crisis. Here’s Why.

Here’s what you’ll find on today’s show:

— This week, striking teachers across Oklahoma have been following in the footsteps of their counterparts in West Virginia. Their grievances, like those of so many teachers across the country, focus not only on low wages but the general lack of funding from the statehouse for basic operational costs. Public schools are dealing with a shortage of supplies, outdated textbooks, poorly maintained buildings, and in some cases, a four-day school week. Since 2008, a confluence of factors, both political and economical, have pushed Oklahoma’s state government to continually slash the education budget.

— In the U.S., when a woman gives birth in prison, she is quickly separated from her child. In Mexico she is not. There you might see children as old as 6 still living with their incarcerated mothers. The Mexican Human Rights Commission says more children than ever before are living behind bars with their mothers in Mexico, an estimated 2,000 kids.