Lowe In The News

CARROLL ACADEMY RECEIVES FUNDING FOR ANOTHER YEAR

Carroll Academy, a school for at-risk youth, will stay open after the state announced Thursday that it will provide funds for the coming school year.

The Huntingdon school currently teaches about 75 students who would otherwise enter the state’s juvenile justice system. Without the state’s $650,000 appropriation for the 2010-11 school year, the school would have been forced to close.

Sen. Lowe Finney, D-Jackson, worked with Governor Phil Bredesen to ensure the school had the funding it needs to stay open.

“I have seen the effect Carroll Academy has on teenagers who have nowhere else to go,” Sen. Finney said. “We can’t turn our back on these students.”

Nearly 3,000 students have gone through Carroll Academy since it opened in 1994. The school graduated 12 students in 2008, and another 40 received their GEDs. The school has a 90 percent pass rate for students who take the GED.

Carroll Academy has been a haven for students by providing focused attention beyond the classroom, said Gov. Bredesen.

“With the reforms we’re making in education, we want to show that we reward schools when they’re doing something right,” Gov. Bredesen said. “Sen. Finney has demonstrated that Carroll Academy is doing something right.”

The academy receives additional funds from rural county school systems, grants and donations to help meet its $900,000 annual budget. It has been estimated that if the academy did not exist, the state would pay annually $59,000 per student to keep them in the state juvenile justice system.