DOC’s Community High School Wins Praise, Even As Some Lawmakers Continue To Want To Defund Or Cut The Program

March 29, 2017

Editorial in this morning’s Valley News, highlights the great rehabilitation work being done across Vermont by employees of the DOC’s Community High School Program. Once again, this program is on some lawmaker’s list of potential cuts , even though there are no actual savings to the General Fund, as the program receives its funding from the state’s Education Fund.

VSEA strongly supports this program and these workers, and we agree it should remain intact–and we believe enough damage has already been done.

From the VN editorial:

In recent years, state budget cuts have reduced the school’s staff from 51 to 37 employees. Along with legislators, the Department of Corrections hasn’t made the school much of a priority. DOC officials are so concerned with maintaining order in the state’s prisons that it often forgets — or ignores — the rehabilitative aspect of incarceration.

Inmates don’t have a lot of advocates in Montpelier. It’s simpler, although not cheaper, to spend $62,000 a year to keep a guy behind bars than to invest in educational programs that might not always pay off.

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DOC’s Community High School Wins Praise, Even As Some Lawmakers Continue To Want To Defund Or Cut The Program

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