California's prison education system is facing an overhaul because of a $35 million budget cut, which could eliminate vocational programs at most correctional institutions.

The budget signed by Gov. Gray Davis on Saturday shifts emphasis to academic programs as a way to reduce long-term prison costs and recidivism. But teachers and prison education advocates argue that eliminating vocational programs, which teach job and life skills to inmates, is one of the worst things the state can do.

"The prisoners right now are told by parole boards that they're supposed to take a trade, but if there's no trade available, how can they be productive citizens on the outside?" asked Dawn Adams, an electronics teacher at California State Prison, Sacramento, also known as New Folsom, who was given a surplus notice June 6. "The only job skills they're going to learn is how to be better criminals."

Nearly 330 prison teachers, mostly vocational teachers, received surplus notices last month. Their time could be up as soon as Nov. 1, but the California Department of Corrections said Thursday that the restructuring may spare some teaching jobs.

"There will be teacher layoffs, but not nearly the amount that we thought," said Corrections Department spokesman Russ Heimerich, adding that the restructuring -- combined with a decrease in the amount to be cut from the prison education budget (the original cut was to be $46.2 million) -- had contributed to the improved outlook.

The Corrections Department overhaul under the final budget also would consolidate education classes, offer pre-release programs and allow inmates to begin receiving day-for-day credits while attending class at reception centers. Some vocational teachers could be offered positions in academic and literacy programs, Heimerich said.

In addition, Davis on Saturday signed a budget trailer bill, AB 1758, that union officials said would save some teachers' jobs.

The trailer bill said the department couldn't reduce educational positions if the Corrections Department chief determined that the reduction "would result in a loss of day-for-day credits for eligible inmates."

Andy Hsia-Coron, chairman of the California State Employees Association's Bargaining Unit 3, said that Corrections Director Edward S. Alameida Jr. told union officials that the teachers' jobs would be spared.

"Some may have to be moved around, but they wouldn't be losing their jobs," Coron said.

Margot Bach, a department spokeswoman, said Friday that the teachers would be reassigned to facilities such as reception centers, which would offer academic programs for prisoners. Prisoners would be able to earn day-for-day credits while there, she said.

Still, prison teachers worry that violence may escalate at maximum security prisons, where classes are being nearly eliminated because most inmates are violent offenders who are unlikely to be paroled.

Richard Rios, a physical education teacher at the California Youth Authority's Northern Youth Correctional Reception Center and Clinic in Sacramento, said, "These guys will parole some day, and by taking away their programs, they're going to come out worse than they went in.

"It will take away their hope as individuals."

Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez, D-San Fernando, said the Legislature agrees that education is important for all inmates, but for now, the Corrections Department should concentrate on educating prisoners with lesser sentences as a way to save money.

"We need to focus on those we know are going to get out of prison," she said. "The worst thing we can do is send out unrehabilitated, dangerous criminals. We need to rehabilitate them and train them so that they will be less likely to return to prison."

Montañez has reintroduced AB 1219, a bill that would establish an educational board within the Corrections Department. The bill has passed the Assembly and is before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Corrections Department reports that of the 57,731 male inmates paroled in 2000 -- the most recent year for which figures are available -- 24,621 -- or 42.65 percent -- were reincarcerated the first year. Of 6,295 female parolees, 2,109 -- 33.5 percent -- returned within a year.

Recidivism statistics in California do not now distinguish between parolees who participated in academic and vocational education programs while in prison and those who didn't.

But Steve Steurer, executive director of the Correctional Education Association, said California officials are looking into mirroring a study conducted by his group for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Correctional Education that researched correctional education's impact on recidivism and post-release employment.

In that study, two groups of parolees -- those who had participated in correctional education programs while incarcerated and those who had not -- were followed for three years. The inmates were from Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio.

The study reported that former inmates who had participated in correctional education programs were rearrested, re-convicted and re-incarcerated at significantly lower rates than nonparticipants. The re-incarceration rate, for example, was 21 percent for participants, 31 percent for nonparticipants.

Michael Marcum, San Francisco assistant sheriff, has seen the value of prison education firsthand.

Marcum served nearly seven years in California prisons for killing his abusive father when he was 18.

"There's a perception that prison education is a privilege. It's a matter of public safety," said Marcum, whose parole officer helped him get into college.

"These prisoners are coming out someday, and they're coming to my neighborhood and to your neighborhood. ... We need to make sure that the correctional system is correcting people rather than housing people and then dumping monsters back into society."