Literature search for funding sources

¶ … Funding

There has been extensive research on the various and several different types of problems that students face in general, while they are still in school. Some of these are substance abuse, violence, truancy, delinquency, and so on. All of these factors have the tendency to adversely affect the student's life, and ultimately lead to a breakdown in his family life, as well as his personal life. It will also lead to a poorer performance in school, and a general lack of success in every sphere. Therefore, it is clear that today, there is an increasing need for social intervention, through government agencies and through law enforcement and judicial systems. One such program is the 'Positive Action Program', which is in effect a well-designed program that encourages a close collaboration among schools and homes and businesses and institutions, so that a partnership would be formed between the school and the family and the community. (Program: Positive Action Curriculum)

However, it must be noted that attrition is one of the major factors that affect American Universities and schools, and all the efforts that are made to retain students become infinitely more complex because of the fact that more and more students today fit perfectly into the category of being socioeconomic and demographically "high-risk" students. Why this issue is so very important is because of the fact that this trend of high-risk students enrolling in Universities is expected to continue even in the twenty first century. In order to achieve any success with this particular group of 'high-risk' students, it is important that a number of different strategies must be created and adopted, so that the school and the family and the society would all be able to work together for the common good. (High Risk Students and Higher Education: Future Trends)

It was thought that if good behavior in classrooms were to be rewarded monetarily, then, perhaps such behavior would change. One such program is the 'Classroom Cash Incentive Plan', according to which positive behavior on the part of the students would be rewarded with cash, on a daily basis. The various aspects of behavior that would be taken into account would be attendance, punctuality, assignment completion, and so on. On the other hand, behaviors such as tardiness, absences, loitering in the hallways, missing and non-completion of assignments, and hallway passes would all be considered to be negative behaviors, and the student would be charged for such misdemeanors. Classroom cash can be redeemed for certain specific privileges, like for example, for hallway passes, where he may want to sit, and at times, credit towards assignments. The idea behind such a program is that the students' behavior would start to change, as they would all undoubtedly strive to take the best advantage of such a cash incentive program. The objective of the program would be that the student would learn the ways and means in which positive and negative incentives would affect their basic behavior, and, in addition, they would also learn the value of making good choices in their daily lives, both economically, as well as personally. (Classroom Class Incentive Plan)

However, when deciding that such a program has to be implemented, because of the fact that it is an innovation, it would be best to consider several points before surmising that the program would be of benefit or not. Some of the more popular categories to determine whether the innovation is positive or not is, therefore, economic profitability, low cost, whether or not idea would actually make an individual's life easier, and does the idea serve to save time and effort, and finally, will it add to the prestige or to the comfort of the people involved? (Scaling up School reform Initiatives)

"The House Bill no. 330', of the Kentucky Center for School Safety has established a funding program that would effectively establish the Center for School Safety Program. This is a funding program that expects the various districts to report school violence and disciplinary misdemeanors to the authorities, so that timely action may be taken on the issue. Grants are in fact disseminated for certain safety strategies, as well as for alternative education for the students. All the disciplinary codes are clarified in the information given along with the instructions to the authorities, and the fact is that educational facilities are to be provided even to students who have been expelled from the school. All teachers and administrators and other authorities are given the full permission to remove offending students from the classroom, and also from district transportation. Courts are expected to notify the Principals of any type of negative behavior on the part of the student and also require the Principals to share such court information with the teachers or bus drivers. (About House Bill 330)

The allocation of the funds for the School Safety Program is as follows: Not more than twenty percent of FY99 funds and not more than ten percent of FY2000 funds must be utilized for the Program of School safety, and all the funds leftover for FY99 must be distributed by KDE as grants to local school districts for all the appropriate Alternative Education Programs. In the same way, another funding program is the several Community- based programs like for example, academic intervention programs, some programs that use school resource officers, some violence prevention programs, and also training offered to the staff and community members and the teachers and students of the school board. (About House Bill 330)