Monday, February 16, 2009

Art of a Brain Drain Boondoggle

Are you looking for funding for your prized program? Just push the brain drain hysteria button:

Two weeks ago, [PA Governor Ed Rendell] proposed cutting the $3.2 million Governor’s School programs from the next fiscal year’s budget as part of his effort to offset a projected $2.3 billion state deficit, resulting from the recession now crippling the nation’s economy. ...

... Joseph D’Angelo, principal of the high school at the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur in the Villanova section of Radnor, feels it would be a mistake to eliminate the Pennsylvania Governor’s Schools.

Before becoming high school principal at Notre Dame in September, D’Angelo spent 22 years on the faculty of LaSalle College High School in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County, where students regularly won scholarships to the Governor’s Schools.

“Universally, they’ve found it worthwhile. I think it’s a shame they’re pulling the plug on it. They can find a million dollars for this. Even if they make it smaller, they should do it,” said D’Angelo.

He noted that it gives high school students an opportunity to experience life on a college campus and to see if their areas of interest are really what they want to pursue as careers.

“It would be a colossal shame. I hope someone comes out of the woodwork with money for this,” said D’Angelo. “It also keeps kids in Pennsylvania. Everyone talks about a brain drain.”

I'm not saying that the program should be cut, but I'll need to see a more convincing argument.

No comments: