NYTimes: Needing Students, Maine School Hunts in China

Published Oct. 26, 2010

"Faced with dropping enrollment and revenue, a high school in [Millinocket, Maine], a remote town, has fixed on an unlikely source of salvation: Chinese teenagers. Never mind that Millinocket is an hour’s drive from the nearest mall or movie theater, or that it gets an average 93 inches of snow a year. Kenneth Smith, the schools superintendent, is so certain that Chinese students will eventually arrive by the dozen — paying $27,000 a year in tuition, room and board — that he is scouting vacant properties to convert to dormitories."

A school that once held over 700 students, now only has 200 students enrolled. It's enrollment decreased after the paper mill went bankrupt in 2003 -- a main source of jobs in the town. So, the superindendent of the school in this town is convinced that he will be able to get Chinese students to come to Maine to attend their school. I personally think this is crazy. I think that he is completely taking advantage of the fact that Chinese students want to come to the states, and feeding off of their nievety, probably thinking that anywhere in the States is amazing, fun, etc. Well, I don't know if anyone would really want to live in a remote area like Millincoket, Maine if they had the choice. I could be wrong, and perhaps this would be a good experience for Chinese students if they did choose to come study in this town for a year. Any way of being submersed in another culture is a great thing, given how sheltered many people around the world really are -- it opens peoples eyes to what is going on in the world around them (socially, economically, environmentally, etc), gives them new ways of thinking, and other great opportunities. But, I think Smith is completely taking advantage of the situation for his school's personal financial and academic gain. I don't know if I would say it's completely wrong or right one way or another, I just don't personally really agree with it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/education/27students.html?ref=todayspaper