For decades, some states have officially correlated third-grade reading scores with future prison bed projections. That correlation is not coincidence, it reflects a documented trajectory from early reading failure to dropout, to unemployment, to incarceration. The intervention point is during elementary school.
Not math. Not science. Reading. Children who can't read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. The federal investment needed is in early literacy: teacher training, classroom resources, tutoring programs that reach kids before the gap becomes a deficit too large to close.
Prisons cost roughly $35,000 per person per year. Third-grade reading interventions cost a fraction of that. The math is not complicated. The choice is whether to pay at the front end or the back end. The front end is cheaper and produces better outcomes for everyone.