Funding alternative education

While visiting another blog yesterday, I found I had to comment on a post about the "extortion for education" mentioned there. I also decided to follow it up here. The cost of everything is going up all around us (just check out the gas pumps if you haven't already). Education is no exception, especially public education. As we educators know, we are tasked with doing much with very little more times than not. As an alternative educator, this becomes more challenging when my "school of choice" does not enroll the number of students needed to balance the budget. Even though we are part of the local Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) and receive funds from member public schools, our school of choice still charges each district "tuition" for those students who enroll in our programs. When those member districts fail to send us their students, we lose out. Our Alternative High School program, which had been found on two campuses, is now being consolidated to one location because there were insufficient students enrolled in the second location. Purchasing supplies was frozen for most of last year for our Division (Career and Technical Education), resulting in the teachers becoming creative with what we had stockpiled to make it through the year. No Child Left Behind has put forward mandates that programs such as the Alternative High School be available so that ALL children learn. However, we need to determine what the Alternative High School is, and how it is different from the programs available in the member districts for students with difficulties participating in regular education programs. This is a continuing challenge, to make the alternative program sufficiently different and successful in meeting state and national education standards. This is being done at our school through the development of unique programs such as a PreTech program for younger (ninth and tenth) grades, and other elective courses not usually offered at regular high schools. These programs and electives better meet the needs of the students sent to us, usually resulting in these At-Risk students completing school instead of dropping out. Many even continue on to colleges and rewarding careers that they had never considered before. I invite you, especially those of you who consider "Alternative Education" to be a negative option for students, to visit http://bocescareertech.org and learn about two alternative education graduates who will be moving on to success, instead of dropping out into failure. These programs can be, and often are, successful. However, we are also not likely to "blow our own horns" and let you know about it. Alternative Education programs are not always the solution, but they can be successful if supported. Two keys to this success: (1) programs and courses that are significantly different from that of the "regular" school, and (2) different locations that remove those At-Risk students from the environments in which they are experiencing so much failure and trouble. You need to shop around and determine what will work for your student. No Child Left Behind leaves little choice to school districts. Support your Alt. Ed. programs!