Dozens of employees at adult education programs in West Virginia's state prisons and regional jails are slated to be laid off, and those programs are to be eliminated, as a result of the ongoing state budget impasse.
The state Department of Education began sending notices of impending layoffs Thursday to all 55 teachers and principals who provide basic education and career and technical education to inmates in West Virginia's 20 adult jails and prisons, department spokeswoman Betty Jo Jordan said.
"As you are aware, there is currently no state budget approved for fiscal year 2017," the letter reads. "As you are also aware, there has been discussion between the Legislature and the West Virginia Department of Education that programs in adult correctional facilities may be a potential cut to help balance the state budget.
"Accordingly, I regret to inform you that I am recommending to Superintendent Michael Martirano that your position be terminated effective June 30, 2016, due to a potential lack of funds."
The 55 positions are a mix of full-time and part-time positions, but a majority are full-time, Jordan said.
The letter is signed by Christina Chambers, executive director of the Office of Institutional Education Programs.
Department of Education policy requires 30 days notification before layoffs.
State law requires West Virginia to provide education to children in state institutions, but adults in jails and prisons must receive an education "to the extent funds are provided therefor."
Classes in jails and prisons include basic adult education courses in things like literacy, but also instruction in trades, like plumbing, cooking, cosmetology and auto repair.
Jordan said that, if funding becomes available, "certainly we will do everything we can" to keep offering education programs in jails and prisons.
"But we just do not know what the outcome of the budget is going to be, so just to let people have a heads up," she said. "We can be hopeful that it is restored but I don't know."
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has made prison reform a focus of his administration, passing a wide-ranging law in 2013 that intended to reduce inmate crowding through more drug treatment programs and more supervised release.
Chris Stadelman, a Tomblin spokesman, harkened back to that law and said the administration hopes the final budget will preserve the education positions, but that officials would be meeting to discuss how to proceed if it does not.
"These programs help protect public safety because they aid rehabilitation and reduce recidivism," Stadelman said in an emailed statement. "They are often a factor when inmates are considered for parole and help prepare inmates for potential re-entry to their local communities where they can become productive members of the state's workforce."
The Legislature just completed its ninth day of a special session intended to pass a state budget, after it failed to do so during the regular session.
There has been little progress, so far.
The Republican-controlled Legislature all but ignored two of Tomblin's three proposals to raise revenue to close the $270 million budget hole, and the House of Delegates killed the third proposal, a 45-cent increase in the tobacco tax, after it had squeaked through the Senate by one vote.
Republicans have called for more budget cuts to balance the budget, but Tomblin has said that after several years of across-the-board cuts, further cuts will mean layoffs.
Tomblin has vowed to veto any budget that leans too heavily on money from the state's Rainy Day Fund, saying ongoing budget issues cannot be solved with one-time money.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.