Florida Governor Jeb Bush gets a scolding today from the St. Petersberg Times for putting $60 million into new prisons while giving nothing for higher education.

In portraying the only two options as more money or inmates in the streets, the governor is embellishing to make his point. And his rhetorical excess wouldn't be so jarring if he showed a similar sense of urgency for young people who are not in trouble with the law. Louis de la Parte, a respected Senate budget chairman in the 1970s, used to display a poster in his office picturing a young man in a jail cell and advising that "it costs more to send a boy to prison than to college." In this case, the governor is asking for $60-million to house new inmates while the universities are denied $66-million to accommodate eight times as many new students.

If Florida would spend more on treatment and prevention, and provide alternatives to prison for drug and other non-violent offenders, the state wouldn't have so many prisoners, and would have money available for financially strapped colleges and students. It's a policy decision and it falls on squarely on Jeb Bush's lap. Floridians should hold him accountable for this come election time.