Tag: Colleges

Colleges prepare to expand programming when Pell Grants are reinstated for prison education in 2023

Laurent
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Colleges across the country are expecting increased interest in prison education programs following the return of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated people, which is set for July 2023. With less than a year to go, program leaders are preparing for an influx of enrollees and reconsidering how they serve students who are in prison.

Colleges have both altruistic and financial motivations for expanding their prison education programs, according to Rebecca Villarreal, senior director at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit focused on workforce and education systems.

“Some institutions have a really clear social justice mission and a commitment to addressing issues of equity. For other institutions, we certainly recognize that enrollment declines are a challenge for colleges and universities. Through these programs, there’s the opportunity to enroll additional students,” Villarreal said.

New guidelines

Under the FAFSA Simplification Act passed at the end of 2020, all incarcerated students will be able to apply for federal Pell Grants for the first time since 1994. With the reinstated Pell program comes new rules for colleges to follow. 

Oversight entities will judge whether colleges with prison education programs are acting in students’ best interest. At federal prisons, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons will oversee the outcomes. At state prisons and jails, it will be the state corrections agencies and the municipal governments, respectively.

Success metrics include post-release job placement rates, transferability of credits toward degree programs at other institutions, and availability and quality of academic and career advising services.

Because college leaders can’t check in with incarcerated students as casually as they can with the rest of their student body, they are gearing up for the challenge of tracking progress with limited contact and minimal emails and phone calls, according to Villarreal. Often, that means more staff.

“Folks have asked, like, ‘How many students per staff member should I allocate?’ or, ‘How will I know when I need more people?'” Villarreal said. “There are lots of outstanding questions and they’re each so facility-

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E-sports may be Flint Hills Technical College’s initial foray into athletic software

Laurent

Flint Hills Technological University brand.

Soon after close to a 10 years of conversations, both powering the scenes and in the public, athletics might be shut to getting a fact at Flint Hills Technical College or university — just not in a way that numerous people would say is common.

School President Caron Daugherty offered a approach to commence e-sports — fundamentally a faculty-sanctioned movie gaming group — at the school. Daugherty states it is not something which is “coming out of nowhere.” It follows an on-campus research, in which more than 54 % of surveyed college students expressed curiosity in pursuing and about 80 p.c of collaborating faculty see this kind of a plan as a recruitment resource.


It also would keep on a trend now becoming prevalent among two-year schools in other places across the place.

The total estimated charge for hardware, software, home furniture and good results solutions, is virtually $270,000, which includes $115,000 for the initially calendar year, over $30,000 in the second and third decades, above $60,000 for the fourth calendar year which include a personal computer system refresh and above $30,000 for the fifth yr.

The plan as presented would have Flint Hills Technological College funding facility costs like utilities and insurance plan, as effectively as convention fees, the coaching workers, recruiting, promotions and web site advancement. It is at the moment trying to find city funding for the hardware, software package, home furniture and achievement providers — and is also starting to access out to other entities, which include a doable presentation to Lyon County, to assist offset those people software prices. Mayor Becky Smith says this is an enlargement that tends to make feeling for the school, but she’s concerned about the city’s opportunity function as a money supporter.

If the city approves, it has to decide wherever its funding will come from. Metropolis Commissioner Rob Gilligan prompt just one-time COVID-19 relief resources from the federal governing administration rather of the standard fund.

If this moves forward, the higher education is concentrating on the Jones Instruction Middle on the

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