WCSH News: Will “Town Academies” Survive School Consolidation?

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An outstanding report was done by Don Carrigan of WCSH this past week on the likely impact that consolidation efforts will have on the town academies. Text below is from their website, but the video story, which can be seen by clicking the “Play Video” link on this page has much more.
Will “Town Academies” Survive School Consolidation?
Web Editor: Ken Christian, New Media Manager
CHINA (NEWS CENTER) — As school boards around the state figure out how to consolidate their school districts, one group of towns wants to make sure some things don’t change.
Thousands of high school students and their families get to choose what school they attend, and have the town pay the tuition. Schools like Erskine Academy in China depend on school choice.
Erskine is a private school, but serves as the primary local high school for eight towns. Many of these so-called “town academies” have been in business for more than a century.
The new law lets towns continue school choice, but Erskine Headmaster Don Poulin says the town academies still worry there could be pressure to change the choice system in the future.
School officials in some of the towns that send students to Erskine say keeping school choice is one of their primary concerns in the district consolidation effort.
The Department of Education says the new law allows town to continue to offer choice, and only individual towns can vote to take school choice away.