Some may not be surprised that quality education has the power to provide opportunity to those who seek it of personal and professional transformation. Arguably, a society that encourages higher education is more likely to produce a population of civic-minded and purposeful individuals, as opposed to a society that does not. In an article titled “What Can College Mean?” – Lessons from the Bard Prison Institute, author Ellen Condiffe Lagemann supports the importance of a liberal arts education but also presents the case that a quality education in the United States is not accessible to all. Lagemann is a professional in the field of education. Among other prestigious honors, she is a senior member of the Bard Prison Initiative or BPI, a liberal arts academic program offered to convicted felons in an upstate New York prison. The BPI program boasts a nearly 100 percent completion rate (not including those who have transferred or been released from prison) with approximately 250 students enrolled at the time of writing. Lageman attributes this success to the program's unique design, which closely mirrors the curriculum at Bard College in Annandale on Hudson. Compared to other universities, BPI believes it excels in three areas. The first is their admissions process. Admissions counselors are trained to evaluate applicants based on their highest learning potential rather than past academic experience. By looking for candidate qualities such as drive, curiosity, ambition and self-expression, BPI can ensure that its students are selected fairly and are able to reach their highest academic potential in a learning environment. rigorous but supportive. ... middle of paper ...... it took too much work for the reader to get there. This article would have been more compelling if it focused more on examining the relationship between American policy and the current state of our prison population through the lens of education using the importance of BPI and statistics as support, rather than going back and forth between general policies. feedback on education, success and attributes of the BPI program. Additionally, the lack of opposing viewpoints detracts from the validity of Lagemann's argument. A deeper exploration of why we should fund criminals when law-abiding citizens need it should have been in-depth to add more depth and credibility to an otherwise one-dimensional article. In conclusion, I believe that Lagemann took unnecessary tangents that risked losing his audience along the way...