- Falcon High School
- Innovation Meeting 1
- Topic 1: The Future of FHS
Cost of academy vs. new textbooks?
The Academy of Health Sciences and the Information Technology Academy are academic tracks that support students who want to learn deeply or pursue practical training leading to a vocational certification. Students take courses in each academy to fulfill the graduation requirement for elective courses. They also take core academic courses to fulfill graduation requirements for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Health and Foreign Language.
Like most elective classes, the academy courses do not depend on textbooks so much as they are aligned to standards for career and technical education. Because the courses in the academies and other vocational learning are aligned to standards for Career and Technical Education, Falcon High School receives significant reimbursement under the Colorado Career and Technical Act (CTA). In 2014, the district reimbursement was over $828,000, with the largest share returning to Falcon High School to fund teachers and programs.
Since there are no reimbursement programs for core class textbooks, there isn’t a direct way to compare the net costs of academies to general textbook purchases. What is clear is that the funds that support the academies are not diverted away from core academic teachers or textbooks. If those funds were not budgeted for the academies, they would have to be used to provide other elective programs that would not necessarily qualify for state reimbursement.