Montgomery County lawmakers are preparing to reinstate a tuition assistance program that was shut down two years ago following revelations of widespread abuse. In anticipation of the return of the program suspended in June 2009, the County Council’s Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee discussed changes on Monday that would protect the county from some of the practices The Washington Examiner uncovered in 2009 — like employees taking hot yoga classes, studying religion, spending $1,000 on sailing lessons and learning Spanish in Costa Rica, all on the county’s dime.

Under the proposed changes, the county would pay only for courses taken at an accredited institution and would not cover classes that “are primarily recreational or utilize a specific faith-based method as a primary approach to problem solving.” An employee’s department director and the director of the Office of Human Resources must sign off on the employee’s course load before the employee can enroll in the program.