I agree with most of Carl Disalvatore's comments about no more spending at Jefferson Community College. Banks, institutions of higher learning and others are moving away from bricks and mortar and more toward online activities.

Where I disagree with him is his criticism of all low-enrollment programs graduating fewer than 15 students. Generally, engineering is a good paying occupation. Many local students have benefited from JCC's engineering/science program. This is a low-enrollment, low-graduation number program.

There are three categories of students in this program:

■ Students who are academically weak and are not accepted at a four-year engineering college. They need extra work to get prepared.

■ Qualified students who are accepted at four-year engineering colleges but can't afford the cost.

■ Students whose parents pay $30,000 or more to an engineering college only to have their children fail for whatever reason. The parents are not willing to spend that kind of money again and insist that they prove themselves at JCC.

All three categories leave JCC with the first two years of most engineering programs and are juniors when they go to a four-year college. Without JCC, it would have been almost impossible for many young people to complete their four-year engineering degrees.

One overriding benefit of this program is that many of these students stay here and use their brains to solve local problems and contribute to our community in so many ways.

Finally, professors who teach the courses in this program also teach technical courses in other programs and are not on staff solely for engineering. They are available to the students to help them understand some very tough technical material.

Robert Rehley

Lorraine