The Times Leader publishes free obituaries, which have a 27-line l

DR. JOEL BURSTEIN, 80, passed away on Thursday, January 8, 2009 i

I SURE hate to sound like the Grinch who stole Christmas, but perhaps I am.
Luzerne County Community College announced this month that it will launch a program that allows anyone who has lost his or her job in the past year, through no fault of their own, to sign up for some free classes, compliments of the college.
The 12 credits being offered have a total value of about $1,200.
Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, that&rsquo;s nice of LCCC; however, it&rsquo;s yet another example of public officials being generous with money that&rsquo;s not theirs.
LCCC is a taxpayer-funded institution. If 100 people take advantage of the board&rsquo;s largesse, this taxpayer-funded institution forfeits $120,000 of income.
College President Tom Leary said the program will continue as long as it does not put the college in a precarious financial position. Depends on how one defines precarious. What if hundreds and hundreds of unemployed residents sign up for this? That&rsquo;s a lot of lost income for an institution undergoing some costly publicly financed construction projects.
Leary also said in a published report that LCCC has an &ldquo;obligation&rdquo; to retrain people so they can find new employment to provide for themselves and their families. It does? Since when?
Does Wilkes University have a similar obligation? Does King&rsquo;s College?
On the surface, this program, while well-intentioned, raises some concerns.
What about those students already enrolled at the Nanticoke-based community college who are juggling jobs and classes to pay for their tuition? Is this new program fair to them?
There might also be some financially strapped parents who are struggling to send their sons and daughters to LCCC so they too can better themselves. Don&rsquo;t they deserve a helping hand? They&rsquo;d likely welcome a $1,200 tuition rebate.
Then there&rsquo;s the self-employed home builder who no one is hiring these days to build houses. Is he eligible to take a few courses on the house? Even if he did, will that help him find other work? Not necessarily.
And I bet that poor kid sweeping floors at a fast-food restaurant would love to take some free classes to try to upgrade his standard of living. Is he eligible? If LCCC has an &ldquo;obligation&rdquo; to retrain people so they can provide for themselves, why not him? Chances are that kid&rsquo;s making less than the laid-off worker collecting unemployment compensation.
Which brings us to this: How do college officials plan to keep tabs on the program? Remember, this is a board that last year blindly awarded a construction-related contract worth about $1.5 million without even reading it. President Leary signed off on it without knowing what was in it. There was lots in it.
Only after the outlandish, no-bid pact was exposed by reporters did college officials renegotiate it. At this month&rsquo;s meeting, the trustees approved a new management contract with Precept Associates. Instead of being paid a whopping 8 percent of the estimated $20 million project&rsquo;s cost, Precept will get 4.98 percent, which is said to be more in line with industry standards. Darn those reporters.
It&rsquo;s too bad, though, that the board already frittered away an untold amount of college funds. LCCC will not receive any refunds from the original overpriced contract, according to news coverage.
There&rsquo;s more reason to wonder whether college officials will diligently monitor the new college credit handout.
Last year we also learned that a politically connected associate dean was placed on paid leave for eight months over suspicions he stole more than $17,500 and two laptop computers from his employer.
By the way, did we ever get those computers back?
President Leary had said that the now-fired dean, whose annual salary was $73,022 &ndash; not to mention the $17,500 bump  he allegedly took from the cafeteria kitty &ndash; wouldn&rsquo;t have to pay back any of his unearned salary for sitting home all that time. No surprise there.
You don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;ll let the unemployed dean sign up for free classes, do you?
In the meantime, we&rsquo;ll just have to see how this new program works out. But for now, there are some reasons to be a little leery (no pun intended).


What about those students already enrolled at the Nanticoke-based
 community college who are juggling jobs and classes to pay for their
 tuition? Is this new program fair to them?

Lccc’s ‘generosity’ With Taxpayer Dollars Deserves Closer Scrutiny Commentary Betty Roccograndi