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

[Jonathan Whatley]

In California, there is actually an accredited college located inside a prison.

It would be far cheaper to do ACE credits for 75%+ of the college credits then enroll in college for the final 25% or less.

All you need is a big empty room & an Internet connection.

Private funding can take care of the rest.

So you're proposing eliminating personnel who do in-person face-to-face college teaching and tutoring with prisoners.

The unstaffed big empty room, Internet connection, and communication with off-site CBE program staff approach will work for some prisoners.

But the unstaffed room approach is very likely to have lower uptake and is certain to have attrition that support from staff would have prevented.

Attrition isn't free. If your plan pays $10k per successful graduate but wracks up additional $2k or $5k bills for students who start the process but drop off dejected when they hit too high a barrier and don't have anyone to help them work through it on-site, you have to account for that.