The Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education voted Wednesday to pursue a new program designed to deliver for-credit classes in regional Oregon correctional institutions.
The board also voted to allow its current contract to provide Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Equivalency Diploma (GED) courses at three regional prisons to sunset as scheduled, June 30.
“The college needs to pivot and begin a new and different course,” said President J. Mark Browning. “There is a future for BMCC to provide for-credit courses that dovetail with the new emphasis coming the Federal Department of Education through the Pell for Prisons program. This new avenue aligns with our goals to grow enrollment while serving our regional communities.”
BMCC has been a longtime partner in education with the Oregon Department of Correction by offering ABE and GED courses at Eastern Oregon Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Two-Rivers Correctional Facility in Umatilla and Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City. ABE and GED courses are paid by the Oregon Department of Corrections in a contract for services provided but are not used in full-time enrollment calculations for post-secondary funding purposes as they are non-credit.
Pell for Prisons will provide eligibility for Adults in Custody (AIC) to enroll in for-credit general education courses through a local community college for the first time since the 1990s.
“This is a new venture for us,” said Browning. “We have courses, faculty and the ability to take those courses to our regional correctional facilities to give AIC those foundational classes they need to prepare for their next chapters upon completion of their sentences. This new program expansion from the federal Department of Education allows us to offset some of our costs through tuition that we simply cannot do under our contract for ABE/GED. In addition, the credits these folks take will help our overall enrollment which helps us build BMCC for future students in all programs and ventures.”
The vote by the BMCC Governing Board of Education, directs the college administration to allow the current contract with the Department of Corrections/Higher Education Coordinating Commission to sunset at its completion, June 30, 2023. Current ABE/GED instructors impacted by the upcoming closure are encouraged to apply for open positions for which they are qualified. Impacted classified staff will undergo a bumping process, as per their current labor agreement. The process provides for re-assignment of classified personnel to open positions for which they are qualified to minimize job loss.
