I like your idea; I want to improve your odds of getting funding I will vote for your idea if you will vote for mine. My idea is for a web site that raises money for inventors and entrepreneurs called New Idea website Check out my idea blob submission and visit New Idea Website and see what I can do for you. http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/4060-NEW-IDEA-WEBSITE The need for jobs is one of the biggest problems that a democratic government faces because creating jobs is an unwanted byproduct of business and industry. The reason I say its unwanted is the more jobs a business creates the more its expenses are and the smaller it’s bottom-line. If business and industry have their way they would run their companies with no jobs at all no management or labor. To deal with this dilemma I pr…moreopose a federal venture capital carrot fund that literally pays entrepreneurs to create jobs. The investment bank would be expected invest in seed level startup projects like yours and to lose money at a specified dollar per jobs ratio for example during hard times that figure may be as high as $20,000 per job and good times the figure may be as low as five dollars per job, by controlling this ratio the fed could roughly control unemployment. The bank will be expected to fund novel products and services and stay away from things like restaurants that will simply draw jobs from other restaurants or moving factories from one part of the country to another. If you like this idea vote for it and send the congressional letter from the website. Sincerely Frank Scruggs

NOTE FROM IDEA DEVELOPER - All the pieces for this are in place ... we need the seed money to lift this off the ground and publicize the location - website - for people to sign up ... and by people we mean over 10M and counting by more than 500,000 EACH YEAR across the USA.

It is the traditions of the traditional system that often becomes part of the reason students dropout or are pushed out. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently did a study that found that the MAJORITY of dropouts were doing well academically but were being bored to death by the traditional system and simple left - dropped out. They then find themselves, a few years, with or without a family, that the lack of the diploma has turn them into persona non gratis in the job world. The doors to work and a decent job are shuttered. The Ole Economy jobs that once supported dropouts have dropped out to another country. There's nothing left and, without that piece of paper called "Diploma" no place to go ... except down, into divorce, drugs, drink, and like you said, detention - p…morerison. So "Yes" the program would address the special language needs of the population at which we are looking but that is not the primary problem. And the students ONLY need to meet the standards of the state in which the diploma is earned... passing grades and the requisite number of hours of courses in the curriculum. Hope this answers your question and thanks for your vote. The country needs these folks back as productive citizens ... think of all the millions of minds going nowhere and worse because of a piece of missing paper ...

There is certainly a need for "second chance" educational opportunities for those who have somehow fallen through the cracks and find themselves without a high school diploma. I'm curious about your strategy for providing opportunities for academic success to students who were not able to find it within the traditional system. How, for example, will you address the special needs of students whose dropping out is linked to illiteracy or other serious learning challenges. Will the mentors you hire be available for intensive remedial instruction or will everything be done online? Will students be required to meet the standards set by state education agencies and to pass high school graduation exams? I know this may be a controversial suggestion and I'm not sure if it is already bein…moreg done, but it may be worth exploring the possibility of implementing this type of formal online program as one form of rehabilitation for certain members of the prison population. I would be willing to bet that offenders who leave the criminal justice system with a high school diploma would be much less inclined to return.

Lorax: The idea is scalable across the country. Each state has an agreement that an accredited diploma from one state is valid in all the others. The states may dictate different standards for their diplomas, but once a student gets one in say California, it's good for an application to higher education and/or a job in Texas or any other state.

Is this scaleable or are you just focused on doing this in your home state? I think that each state has its own standards for graduation.