Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 17, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 25 W e at Mount Wachusett Community College have a strong belief in the power of education to transform lives. Our vision statement explicitly describes the school as "a college of opportunity and a mod- el for teaching and learning excellence." With our ongoing prisoner educa- tion programming and inclusion this month in an effort to build a statewide framework for this work, MWCC is educating a population greatly benefit- ting from a strong foundation as they seek new employment. But the work is not just about the individuals; our overall economy benefits from having an educated workforce. A consortium of Massachusetts colleges and universities – including MWCC, MIT, Boston University, Tus University and Emerson College – won a grant from the Vera Institute of Justice to grow our prisoner education programming. e ability for colleges to offer prisoner education has waxed and waned depending upon political will, but through $250,000 in funding from the Vera Institute, this consortium will be working to create an educational pipeline at each of Massachusetts' prisons. MWCC and the Massachusetts Department of Correc- tions Division of Inmate Training & Education have already built a strong relationship. We offer employment prepara- tion for inmates within five years of their release. e programming places significant responsibility upon the inmates and focuses on ensuring the student is poised to be a productive member of our community. e ben- efits include not only a boost to the local workforce but a research-proven decline in re-incarceration. Prisoners with a postsecondary education are 43 percent less likely to reoffend. is makes sense because 65 percent of all new jobs require some postsecondary education, and yet only 22 percent of people in state prison have that type of education. With MWCC, specifically, the DOC literally broke down walls to provide classroom space. DOC built new programs to better prepare students for college and have given us the access it takes to successfully meet with potential students. Of course, there are restrictions, such as no internet access, and guidelines on materials to be used in the classroom. And yet, these are some of the college's best students. In May of this year, MWCC graduated its first cohort of inmates with a business certificate: 22 men graduated; six finished with a perfect 4.0 GPA and 16 achieved high hon- ors. Make no mistake, these are hard-working students. At that graduation, the DOC invited family members to attend the ceremony. Young children watched their fathers receive their certificates. MWCC staff members overheard one mother tell her son, "is is the most excited your daughter has ever been to come visit you here." Hearing that was incredibly moving and strengthened our commitment to MWCC's vision of being the college of opportunity for our students and the region. Rachel Fricke Cardelle is the vice president of lifelong learning & workforce development at MWCC in Gardner. Don't fear marijuana Prisoners among MWCC's best students V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L F or nearly, 100 years marijuana was an ille- gal substance, so easy to still associate the plant with criminal activity. Even though marijuana has been legal in Massachu- setts for six years, old stigmas die hard. But they need to. Recreational marijuana alone is projected to be a $1-billion plus industry in the state, with Central Massachusetts potentially play- ing an outsized role. However, the region's busi- nesses, governments and citizens need to support the industry so it develops in a fruitful way. Retail recreational marijuana stores are one thing. Much like bars and liquor stores, not every neigh- borhood is a right fit for that kind of foot traffic. ey should not be sited near schools or in the mid- dle of residential districts. But – much like bars and liquor stores – communities still must allow them, finding a proper place for them to sell their wares. More importantly for the Central Massachu- setts economy, the marijuana industry has a need for testing labs and cultivation facilities – a very different end of the spectrum than a retail store. A cultivation facility is essentially an indoor farm, not dissimilar to lettuce grower Little Leaf Farms in Devens. Testing labs are small biotech facilities without significant amounts of marijuana on site. Yet, Central Mass. has situations like in Charlton, where citizens are trying to walk back the board of selectmen's approval of a $100-million cultivation facility, which would be the largest in the state and generate significant taxes for the town. Worcester County has 34 recreational marijuana applications before the state Cannabis Control Commission, far more than any other county, including cultiva- tion facilities in places like Milford, Worcester and BY RACHEL FRICKE CARDELLE Special to the Worcester Business Journal Rachel Fricke Cardelle The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. WO R D F R O M T H E W E B Fitchburg. Because of its affordable properties and easy access to the rest of the state, Central Massachu- setts has the opportunity to be the cultivation capital of Massachusetts. But when towns go to battle against these indoor farms, that sends a signal to the industry we don't want the economic development. More importantly, such fights drive up costs for the marijuana facilities. Aside from legal these battles, Staff Writer Zachary Comeau in his "Regulated to the brink" article on page 6 goes into great detail about how Central Massachusetts municipalities are taking advantage of marijuana businesses' lack of leverage in negotiations to get them to agree to pay far more than the legally allowed 3-percent community impact fee. Because they have already spent significant amounts of money with absolutely zero revenue to show for it before these agreements are signed, the businesses have no choice but to agree. While the community protests and municipal requirements may be done in order to delay or even prohibit the industry from forming – or in the case of local governments, simply try to extract the most out of the situation – the end result may be what people fear the most: an increase in criminal activity. Ulti- mately, any costs the marijuana companies incur will be passed onto the consumer; and if only a few busi- nesses come online, because the others are regulated out of existence, then they can set the market price. eir only competition may be illegal street dealers. Black market pot is cheaper than anything poten- tially coming from a dispensary. Most people would prefer to buy from a legal company, in order to ensure quality and be within the bounds of the law. But if we keep driving up the costs of legal marijuana, users will see the black market as worth the risk. Tweets of the week "The Melvin S. Cutler Charitable Foundation, named for our founder, made @WBJournal's list of Largest Charitable Foundations again this year." - Cutler Associates (@Cutler_Builds), Sept. 10, on WBJ's list in the Giving Guide "Worcester @BldgTrdsUnions Prez Brian Brousseau #IBEW 96 BM Tom Maloney & big turnout of #worcester Trades members @ hearing 4 @WooSox Union Jobs R Good 4 Community" - Frank Callahan (@FrankMBTC), Sept. 5, on members of the Worcester Community Labor Coalition advocating for a community benefits agreement to be attached to the Pawtucket Red Sox agreement to move to Worcester Facebook feedback "Sad misuse of a good capacity live entertainment destination." - Ross Rosco Atamian, Sept. 11, on Becker College emerging as a potential tenant for the vacant Worcester auditorium "THE GRID.... giving the Canal District some solid competition for the 'place to be.'" - Steven Pascal, Sept. 1, on the four new attractions set to open this fall in Worcester's Grid District W W

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