Governor Rendell Announces Recipients Of High School Reform Grants
Harrisburg, PA - Governor Edward G. Rendell today announced more than 350 school districts will share $24M in targeted funding during the 2007-08 school year for three initiatives that are key components of the administration's high school reform efforts.
The funds will help more than 200,000 high school students be better prepared for their post-graduation endeavors.
"Our goal with these strategic investments in education is to ensure every young Pennsylvanian can graduate from high school with a competitive edge," Governor Rendell said. "We owe it to our young people to prepare them for success in this globally competitive economy. When we help our students and schools improve, we improve the commonwealth as a whole."
"Project 720 focuses on transforming high schools by providing students with a more rigorous high school curriculum while also enhancing their access to post-secondary education opportunities. The program -- named for the number of days a student spends in high school from the beginning of the 9th grade through the end of 12th grade -- will receive $11M in 2007-08, allowing it to expand to include 42,600 additional students in 30 more high schools.
The funding is a 38 percent increase from the $8 million invested in 2006- 07. Project 720, begun in the 2005-06 school year, already has reached 115,000 students in 118 high schools.
"Project 720 helps ensure our high schools are top-notch learning environments that produce highly skilled students," Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said. "Being able to offer all commonwealth students advanced placement courses, college prep classes and smaller learning environments is key to preparing our students to compete with students from countries like Japan and India."
Governor Rendell also announced the grant recipients for the $10M Dual Enrollment program, which helps high school students to enroll in college-level courses and receive both secondary and postsecondary credit for that coursework. The funding represents a 20 percent increase over the $8 million that was budgeted for Dual Enrollment last year.
"Seventy percent of today's fastest growing jobs require education beyond high school," Governor Rendell said. "As the job market becomes more competitive, it is important that our students receive exposure to post secondary education, which Dual Enrollment gives them."
Under the Governor's direction, Pennsylvania is committed to offering all students, regardless of financial standing, an opportunity to participate in post-secondary courses and succeed. To help achieve this goal, the 2007-08 budget reserves $2.2M of Dual Enrollment's funding for low-income students. This funding will provide more opportunities for Pennsylvania students who need the most help.
The Dual Enrollment program will help an additional 12,000 students from 363 school districts and career and technical centers to participate in 38,000 post-secondary courses. In the 2006-07 school year, more than 12,000 students participated in 18,326 post-secondary courses. There were 306 districts that partnered with 112 postsecondary institutions that year.
Recipients of College and Career Counseling grants also were announced by Governor Rendell. This $3M investment will continue to help school districts work to create student-centered career development systems to better prepare more students for college and career success.
"Governor Rendell's initiative and innovation for education is making a dramatic impact in preparing the commonwealth's students for the next step in their lives," Secretary Zahorchak said. "The programs included in our high school reform initiative are producing highly skilled, competitive students that will be able to succeed in the world after high school."
SOURCE: Governor Edward G. Rendell