ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610070037
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
* WANT TO take a college course that, say, is offered only by Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond? If you live in Franklin County, no need to go the distance. The course may soon be offered at the county's high school or at its new Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration, due to open next year.
Such ``distance learning'' opportunities will be coming the way of rural Franklin County, thanks in part to smart educational leadership in that county, and now also to a $1.5 million federal grant just won by the school division to advance its innovative high-tech teaching and learning.
Franklin's was one of only two public-school districts in Virginia (the other was Norfolk's) to win a federal Challenge Grant for Technology in Education this year. It was one of only 24 in the nation, out of 586 school systems that applied for the funds.
Some may be surprised that Franklin, once viewed as a backwater county that specialized only in moonshine and chawin' tobacco, is getting national recognition for sophisticated educational initiatives. We're not surprised. Schools Superintendent Leonard Gereau and others have been tireless in promoting efforts to blend technology with academics in the classroom, and higher standards with community support in the county. County schoolchildren and residents already have benefited, as may other rural school divisions that keep an eye on what Franklin is up to.
* BILL CLINTON continues to show signs of weakness when it comes to the military. The 1997 defense budget, just signed, is $11 billion higher than the administration requested. Republicans in Congress loaded up the bill with weapons and pork that the Pentagon hadn't asked for, in effect daring the president to veto it and be called soft on defense. Clinton flinched, of course.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB