Education decisions are among the most important choices people ever make. So we were surprised and disappointed to see an article so loosely reasoned and reckless in its conclusions as “Five Reasons to Skip College” published in Blank Slate at Forbes.com on April 18, 2006. The article never provides a numerical assessment of the costs and benefits of going to college, uses statistics inappropriately and in a way that biases the conclusions against college, contains conceptual errors on how to evaluate the return on a college education, and greatly exaggerates the only substantive criticism of typical evaluations of the financial worth of a college degree.

This report provides the findings and recommendations of an independent evaluation of the methodologies employed by the Arizona Department of Corrections in the preparation and application of its Operating Per Capita Cost Report and Private Prison Cost Model. The purpose of the Cost Report is to provide the average daily operating cost incurred by ADC during a fiscal year to incarcerate an inmate. Information has also been utilized to compare state versus private prison costs. This report and the evaluation upon which it is based were conducted and prepared at the Department's request by MAXIMUS, Inc.