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The millions of stimulus dollars to be spent on modernizing classrooms won't transform learning if students can't participate in the online forums that are reshaping the economy, journalism, government and society. If government has any helpful role to play in making school Web surfing safer, it should fund the development of online safety curricula and research into effective supervision software and strategies. Requiring more filtering would throw more resources at a failed approach. Another emerging and misguided strategy is requiring certain Web sites, such as social networks, to use age verification software; evading these new obstacles won't be much harder than evading filters.

The biggest reduction is $212 million in the Education Department. This could include a $22 million reduction in a program called "Classrooms for the Future,'' which has been supplying computers for high schools across the state. "This is a tough cut for me to make,'' said Mr. Rendell, who created the program three years ago and said educators around the state like it.

While the attendance rate for the district is very good, Stockman said, 26.6 percent of the Top 50 students in the district’s seven high schools have missed between 10 and 19 days of school and 6.3 percent missed 20 days or more.

“We have students who miss 50 days of school and graduate in the Top 50 of their class. And we know the reasons. A lot of them are working on Florida Virtual School to get (Advanced Placement) and honors credits.”

students who have accrued 10 or more absences in a semester to the intervention team to be considered for denial of credit. Credit denial results in an “L” being placed next tot he semester grade on the student’s report card and in the student’s grade history. The grade will not be figured into the student’s grade point average.

Students and teachers both are finding it necessary to be technologically adept, to be able to collaborate on a global scale and to understand content and media design.

Schools need to adapt to current student needs and identify new learning models that are engaging to younger generations.

To support such a change, both teaching practice and the tools used in the classroom must adapt. Assessment has also not kept pace with new modes of working, and must change along with teaching methods, tools, and materials.