Program to educate incarcerated people costs 40K per graduate?!

[Jonathan Whatley]

What library? Online programs have access to online libraries. Many prisons already have a computer lab no need for multiple computer labs.

20 people can easily share multiple computers. The cost of a computer today is practically nothing. Definitely not anywhere near $40K.

Staffing is the big cost area. If prisoners are going to have access to Internet searching and to prompt turnaround email correspondence, discussion boards, and instant messaging (e.g., for live chat with an online college librarian), in all but the most country-club minimum security environment, someone on or responsible to prison staff is needed to closely attend to their computer use and monitor their communication.

What makes you think Calvin University is providing "more direct and intensive learning coaching than WGU and UMPI do"?

The Calvin program sends professors and tutors to teach face-to-face on site in the prison. "Faculty from several colleges in West Michigan serve as professors in the program, and students from Calvin University are given the unique opportunity to tutor the inmates."

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The Detroit News article states the program "costs $800,000 a year and enrolls 20 inmates annually," and that this year's "ceremony recognized inmates who earned their degrees in 2020, 2021 and 2022."

It's very possible there's an entering cohort of 20 students per year but more than 20 students in the program at a time. That $800K might well be servicing 60 or 100 or more students making progress each year.