| It will encourage business partnerships.
The Greenville Tech Charter High School has won an impressive federal
grant that helps students receive early and close-up exposure to career
options in engineering. The U.S. Department of Education Tech Prep
Demonstration Site grant not only provides almost $700,000 to the school but
also pairs the school with such corporate partners as Duke Power, Michelin,
Lockheed Martin, BMW, Jostens, Piedmont Natural Gas, Bowater, 3M and the
Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce.
The school will use the money over the next five years to help students find
careers, internships and develop senior projects. This is a great
opportunity for students at a school that's geared toward ambitious and
career-minded young people. Greenville Tech Charter High is a public school,
but it's not subject to most of the state rules that govern traditional
public schools. Charter schools are allowed to set most of their own !
hiring and curriculum policies.
Charter schools are valuable additions to the public school system for
their innovative strategies and for offering a measure of competition to
traditional public schools. Greenville Tech Charter High's emphasis on
business partnerships is just one more reason these innovative schools
should continue to be promoted in South Carolina. |
