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New Technical Education School Opens In Philadelphia

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new technical education school has opened in the basement of Benjamin Franklin High School.

Philadelphia schools superintendent Dr. William Hite says the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, is a career and technical education school with specialized classrooms that provide hands-on mechanical experience.

"This is not about creating new classrooms with 30 desks facing the board. Those types of things don't work anymore and so part of what's interesting here is that it is relevant, it is rigorous and it provides children with a natural pathway; because the things that they're doing here, they would be doing on a job site in a manufacturing company," said Hite.

He says there's a huge need across the district.

"This is an investment that we think is going to yield different outcomes for students. We have probably $4 billion in capital needs across the district."

And he says the only way to address the district's financial issues is one school at a time.

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