Let’s face it, creating criminals is a business, and it is in no one's best interest to change it. Criminals are made and not born. I dare anyone to walk into a neo-natal clinic and tell me that one out of 15 babies has a gene or genetic defect that will make it a criminal.

We as individuals and as a society make conscious choices about how to educate and socialize our children.

As individuals, parents and society, we create the situations and conditions that are conducive to a life of crime. Let's single out a high-profile institution to serve as a case in point.

Public schools spend 12 years with our children, which is more than any other group or institution, except parents.

Teachers get paid, promoted and retired based on being orderly functionaries. It makes no difference if a student fails or retains the material.

The proof is in the numbers of high school graduates entering college who are required to take remedial math or English at the college or university level. These numbers run between 40 percent and 60 percent.

Aside from this absurdity, the only non-waiver able requirement for graduating from the 12th grade is passing a 10th grade exam, an exam written by the state as a quality control measure for the counties.

Alachua County had 535 dropouts in grades 9 to 12 during the school year 2002-2003. The graduation rate for the same period was 67.5 percent. Where do a lot of these dropouts and non-graduates end up? Prison.

The Department of Corrections tested incoming inmates in 2001 for educational development. They found the median test score was 6.3 years of education.

The tested grade level achieved most often (13.9 percent) was the fifth grade. About 70 percent had less than GED prep skills (less than 9.0 grade level). This means that 70 percent of the admitted inmates for that year were not eligible for GED courses while in prison.