From the Editor's Desk
Published: April 9, 2008

The Middle College program at Germanna helps high school dropouts transition into college and the work force, meeting an important and easily overlooked need in the community.

By allowing young people who for one reason or another could not complete their high school education obtain a general equivalency diploma, and offering job-readiness training and leadership development, it gives them a second chance at pursuing the career of their choice.

Housed at GCC’s Locust Grove campus since 2004, the free program has seen 200 participants since its inception, 14 of whom came from Culpeper.

College officials recently decided to relocate the Middle College program to the school’s Fredericksburg campus this fall. While we are disappointed to see such a great service leave the immediate area - the other campus is some 50 miles way - the move makes sense.

According to Director Carolyn Bynum, 75 percent of the program’s participants come from Germanna’s eastern service region, which includes Fredericksburg and Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, where the overall student population and combined dropout rate are higher than in the western region, comprising Culpeper, Orange and Louisa counties.

It has certainly been convenient for the relatively small number of participants from the western region to have the program next door, but it really ought to be where it can benefit the maximum number of people.

Bynum said the Middle College will continue to serve people from Culpeper and, as CCPS Assistant Superintendent Eric Conti points out, the move is also an opportunity for Culpeper to expand its own alternative service programs.

While we’re on the subject, we congratulate Rappahannock County Public Schools after a school year in which not a single one of the county’s 498 middle and high school students dropped out. The Virginia Department of Education says the resulting zero percent dropout rate, naturally, was the lowest in the state for 2006-2007.