Thinking Way Outside of the Box?

Maine District Working To Attract High School Students From China.

The New York Times (10/27, A1, Goodnough) reports that the Kenneth Smith, superintendent of the Millinocket, Maine, school district, is in China this week "pitching Stearns High to school officials, parents and students in Beijing, Shanghai and two other cities." Smith is trying to attract Chinese students to his district and "has hired a consultant to help him make connections in China, lobbied Millinocket's elected officials and business owners to embrace the plan and even directed the school's cafeteria workers to add Chinese food to the menu." The Chinese students would pay "$27,000 a year in tuition, room and board." The one set back to Millinocket's plan, the Times adds, is that "foreign students can attend public high school in the United States for only a year." Smith is urging "Maine's Congressional delegation to seek a change, but in the meantime, he intends to recruit a handful of Chinese students to attend Stearns next year."