In the last few weeks, the government has implemented its Second Chance Pell pilot program, an initiative designed to give criminals an education at the expense of law-abiding taxpayers.

Although first announced in July 2015, the program is only just getting underway. On June 24, 2016, the Department of Education announced that “67 colleges and universities selected to participate” in the program, which will offer places to 12,000 incarcerated students.

“We shouldn’t be rewarding bad behavior and now we’ve crossed that line.”

The government plans to pay for these students with Pell Grant funding. Pell Grants exist to provide funding for underprivileged Americans who yearn to better themselves through education, but now law-abiding, underprivileged Americans may be denied Pell Grants this year because the Obama administration thought the money was better spent on criminals.

If spending federal funds which exist to provide scholarships to underprivileged Americans on convicted criminals weren’t bad enough, these criminals are being sent out into society to take their classes.

This caused controversy in Connecticut recently, when it was revealed that Asnuntuck Community College is one of the 67 institutions participating in the program and will accept 12 inmates — but those 12 inmates will be accompanied by only one parole officer and no guards.

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“There’s one guy watching 12 people,” said state Sen. John Kissel. “What if one person has to go to the bathroom?” In addition to the obvious safety concerns raised by the program, Kissel objected to its very premise.

“If you end up in prison in Connecticut, it’s because you did something bad, or you hurt someone in some way,” said Kissel. “These people did something bad. They may be exemplary inside those walls, but they don’t deserve to get a free ride to college,” he added.

Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy fired back at Kissel. “Earlier this year, Sen. Kissel asked for inmates to be outside prison walls so they could do manual labor at his local library,” the governor’s spokesman said. “So Sen. Kissel believes that inmates should carry books and not be able read them?”

This indefensible statement illustrates the extent to which the Democratic Party has abandoned any and all semblance of even pretending to support a moral order. Manual labor is a punishment; education is a valuable gift. Of course inmates “should carry books and not be able to read them” — they’re prisoners. They surrendered their rights when they took away the rights of others.

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“What do I tell people in my town struggling to pay for college?” Kissel said. “We shouldn’t be rewarding bad behavior and now we’ve crossed that line.”

What he should tell people is that their president cares more about giving free stuff to the worst elements of society.

Obama has sacrificed women’s and children’s safety for the self-esteem of transgender adults, he’s sacrificed all Americans’ safety for the self-esteem of foreign Muslims, and he’s sacrificed all American’s safety on the altar of illegal alien amnesty, just so the Democratic Party ensures it has a larger voter base in the future. Now, he’s sacrificing law-abiding Americans’ safety — and taking their money — in order to give criminals an education.