© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A new way to pay for high school graduation programs

A bill before the Michigan Senate might give recent high school dropouts more flexibility to complete their education. 

The bill would not affect graduation standards; it would change the way schools with alternative education programs are paid by the state.

Alternative education programs can provide flexible hours, child-care, transportation, and on-line education for students.  The new bill would pay programs on a monthly basis rather than yearly.

Jeff MacNeil is with the Michigan Association of Community and Adult Education, a non-partisan group.  He says the bill makes it easier for students to transfer between districts because state money follows them to the new district.

"If a student transfers to another district, and they're in this program, that other district would take over the mentorship and education of this student, but also receive the funding for it - which they wouldn't have gotten in the past."

State estimates show that about one in 10 students dropped out of high-school in 2011.

- Nishant Sekaran, Michigan Radio Newsroom