Some Incarcerated People to Become College Grads at Miami Dade College / Public News Service

Eighteen incarcerated students will become college graduates Tuesday at Everglades Correctional Institution in South Florida.

Imagine taking an Intro to Constitutional Law class while serving a sentence. A group of 20 students joined the first class of the Second Chance Pell Experiment program in 2021. It offers federal Pell grants to imprisoned individuals, so they can earn a postsecondary education.

Samantha Carlo, co-director of the Institute of Educational Empowerment at Miami Dade College, which facilitates the program, said the success rate for the first class is pretty remarkable considering the many constraints of teaching in prison. The group of 18 out of 20 are set to receive associate degrees.

“Students in Cohort One who will still be incarcerated, all of them are matriculating into our bachelor’s degree in business, specifically in Supervision and Management,” Carlo explained. “The students will continue on while incarcerated to get their bachelor’s degree.”

Carlo noted two students have been released, and both are employed in the nonprofit sector. She credits their experience, college credits and their abilities for securing jobs before graduation, which is set for 5:30 p.m. at the Everglades Correctional Institution. The second class of students selected in January is already underway.

Carlo emphasized many of the participants, who are now in their 40s and 50s, said they regret not realizing the benefit of an education when they were younger and are grateful for the opportunity to rebound from their mistakes. Carlo added it is why the program is currently focused on issuing degrees in business.

“We selected the business degree because it is most open and most forgiving with people who have felony convictions on their records,” Carlo acknowledged. “So it will ultimately prepare them to work in an industry that requires some business training.”

Carlo stressed the program helps reduce recidivism and anyone with a high school diploma or GED at Everglades can apply for enrollment, but showing proof of Florida residency to obtain funding is the biggest challenge since being incarcerated doesn’t count.

Carlo stated the program tries to work with interested individuals to find the required proof of residency one year prior to them being locked up.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

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A shortage of nurses and medical technicians has left communities across the Commonwealth struggling to meet health care demands. In response, the state’s education board has launched a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of students entering health care fields.

State lawmakers have pledged $10 million dollars to participating colleges and universities.

Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, said the money will be distributed through grants at technical and community schools and four-year colleges, and said institutions must have a degree-to-work pipeline in place for students.

“They have to have a partnership with these employers who are willing to put their skin in the game,” Thompson explained. “Many of our health care agencies are putting forth faculty that have to come to campuses, they’re putting their money in scholarships.”

According to state data, Kentucky’s health care facilities are operating 12% to 20% under needed nursing staff. The state is expected to need more than 16,000 additional nurses by 2024.

Thompson pointed out rural areas in particular need innovative ways to attract faculty and improve academic support, resources and clinical experiences for students.

“It is though a process of building good clinical opportunities,” Thompson noted. “We have to expand our ways of thinking about clinical opportunities, and just the traditional way of doing it.”

He added electronic records, mental health and therapeutic and rehabilitation services are also seeing staff shortages, while at the same time, the state is seeing the number of high school seniors entering college dwindling.

He argued community colleges are especially suited to step in and fill the gap.

“The other part, too, is that they provide most of the dual credit here in Kentucky, so we can start that pipeline early for dual credit courses,” Thompson emphasized. “We can do it all around the state.”

The shortage of health care professionals also is affecting neighboring regions. According to a survey released last year by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, more than 90% of nurses said the pandemic has depleted nurses at their hospitals and, as a result, their careers will be shorter than they intended.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

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Pennsylvania spends an average of almost $20,000 per student per year on education statewide, but one candidate for governor has said he thinks that’s too much.

In his bid for governor, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, has said he’d like to reduce public-school funding by $10,000 per child and give the rest to families for their choice of public, private or home schooling.

That would be devastating for the 1.7 million public-school students, said Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey.

“When you reduce the funding for schools by that much,” he said, “the first thing that’s going to happen is that teachers are going to be laid off, programs are going to be lost and class sizes are going to go through the roof.”

Askey said the teachers’ union has asked Mastriano for more details about his proposal, but hasn’t yet received a response. Askey noted that the increase in education funding in the past few years has been a bipartisan effort, led by Gov. Tom Wolf after severe budget cuts in previous years.

Askey said he sees the additional funding as an acknowledgement that supporting education is one of the most important functions of state government.

“When you’re funding public schools in Pennsylvania – or in any state at all – what you’re doing is, you’re supporting the next generation,” he said, “and you’re making our state stronger in the future and moving on, so that we can have the workforce, think tanks – we can have good, strong citizens.”

This month, Wolf solidified his legacy with a historic $3.7 billion education budget, which includes a $1.8 billion budget hike for the coming school year.

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A measure to provide in-state tuition to all Arizona high school graduates regardless of immigration status will be on the ballot this November.

Known as Prop 308, it also would ensure that DACA and undocumented students are eligible for public scholarships if they have been in the state for at least two years.

Slightly more than 2,000 undocumented and DACA students graduate from the state’s high schools every year, and Jose Patiño, vice president for education and external affairs for the nonprofit group Aliento, said they often have to pay 300% more than their peers at community colleges, and 150% more at public universities.

“The majority of the students who graduate who are undocumented, DACA students, just have this barrier that they can’t overcome,” he said, “cannot pay for college because you’re not eligible for traditionally how low-income students go, through FAFSA, and you also are charged significantly more than your peers.”

He noted that some especially high-achieving students can get private scholarships, but thinks it’s critical to expand access to college for all Dreamers. Twenty-two states allow undocumented residents to qualify for in-state tuition, and Patiño said he hopes Arizona will soon join them.

In 2006, Arizona lawmakers put another measure on the ballot – Proposition 300 – barring undocumented students from accessing in-state tuition, and it passed. Prop 300 also prevented Dreamers from getting child-care assistance or accessing literacy programs and adult education classes. But Patiño said it makes no sense to stop any student from realizing their full potential through postsecondary education.

“Education has transformational experience – specifically for first-time, low-income students, first-generation students,” he said, “where you not only are benefiting yourself, but you’re changing the trajectory of your family.”

He added that giving students a fair shot regardless of immigration status helps the economy; undocumented immigrants in Arizona contribute hundreds of millions of dollars a year to federal, state and local taxes.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

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