The war on drugs killed education

I have long suspected that the reason state colleges are more expensive today, despite us paying more in taxes, is the war on drugs. I just ran into a quote in the LA Times which supports this thesis:

"

In 1990, Linscheid said, the Cal State budget and the state prison budget were roughly the same. Today, the state prison budget is only about 10% less than the Cal State, UC and community college budgets combined. Meanwhile, the number of inmates has shot up from 25,000 to 175,000 over the last 20 years, thanks largely to law-and-order initiatives backed by the prison guards union."

College professors and prison guards make similar salaries, but the return on investment Californians have recieved from the war on drugs has been far lower.