By Kari Lucin, staff writer

Last year 40 Freeborn County jail inmates studied for general equivalency diploma exams, but state and federal funds for the program have been cut due to fluctuating attendance and difficulty measuring time spent per student.

&8220;We lost the funding last year because we didn’t have quite enough attendance, but we’re working on it again now to try to get it going,&8221; said Program Coordinator Jean Jasperson.

Gone are the days when jail inmates spent time chained together working on highway projects for the government. Instead, inmates can spend their time in jail working on their anger management, studying the Bible in either English or Spanish, or creating art projects.

The GED program was just one of 15 programs the Freeborn County Jail offered inmates, with funding coming from the Adult Basic Education portion of the school district’s community education program. ABE’s funding comes from hours spent per student, a difficult thing to measure for inmates who sometimes spend only hours in jail.

Measuring how successful the inmate-students were was also tough, since they had to take the test at Brookside Area Learning Center, an approved testing site, after they left the jail.

Now Jasperson will work with community education to try and fit the GED program into the budget she already has in hopes of getting the program started again in the fall.

&8220;It’s a wonderful program, that’s why I’m working so hard to get it back again,&8221; Jasperson said. &8220;It’s to stop that revolving door so that they will change their lifestyles.&8221;

Inmates studying for their GED tests pored over seven textbooks including social studies, math, writing, and science, and community education teachers Marilyn Burns and Cindy Ganrud came to

the jail to teach in a classroom setting.

&8220;They work at their own pace,&8221; Jasperson said of the students. &8220;Some of them were just flying through the test and others really struggled.&8221;

The curriculum was identical to that of normal GED classes offered through community education. And inmates loved it, Jasperson said.

&8220;All the evaluations have been a teacher’s dream, because they reiterate the main points that the teachers make,&8221; Jasperson said.

(Contact Kari Lucin at kari.lucin@albertleatribune.com or 379-3444.)