http://66.225.205.104/LM20080911.mp3
San Francisco, Cincinnati and Grand Rapids, Michigan are home to schools called the National Center for Arts and Technology. A study is underway to see if a school would work in Charlotte. The National Center for Arts and Technology offers students courses that count toward a high school diploma. The schools also work with local companies to create training classes for adults. Participants do not pay for the courses. Bill Strickland is the head of the Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, the program which the schools are modeled on. He says many cities could use such a facility, but there needs to be a lot of community support to make it succeed. "It depends on getting leadership in Charlotte engaged with the board, the operations, the staffing, assisting in the fundraising and so forth, because at the end of the day it's going to be a Charlotte program, not a Pittsburgh program," Strickland says. Several Charlotte-area companies and non-profits have given a total of 150-thousand dollars to study whether a training center in Charlotte makes sense.