For the first few months of this school year, Lauren Milligan took a bus from her Cache County high school to an applied technology college for a different type of education.

She spent two periods of each school day learning how to take blood pressure, temperatures and assist patients — skills she would need as a certified nursing assistant (CNA). If she passes her state exam next week, she'll leave high school with a diploma and a potential career.

"It gives you an opportunity to see what you really want to do," Milligan said Friday as she waited to put her skills to the test at the Utah Health Occupations Students of America conference and competition in Davis County.

But high school students' access to such opportunities soon might be in jeopardy in some areas of the state — despite recent pushes in Utah and the U.S. to work toward preparing more students for college and careers. The state education budget approved by lawmakers this past session included a little-discussed change that will mean about $5 million less next school year for school districts that send students to Utah College of Applied Technology campuses (ATCs) for career and technical training during the school day. That won't likely be a problem for Salt Lake County districts, which have their own programs, but it could be a major issue for other districts that rely on ATCs to provide some of those classes, especially smaller, rural ones. About 8 percent of high school students who take career and technical classes in Utah take them through ATCs.

"We're all very concerned about it," said Mary Shumway, state director for career and technical education. She said the change might make some districts think twice about letting students take certain career and technical classes at ATCs because they can't afford to lose the dollars.

The idea behind the change was to prevent the state from funding those students twice. Currently, ATCs receive money for those students, and districts receive the full amount of dollars for them, even though they may leave for several periods a day. A 2009 legislative audit recommended the state adjust how it funds such students, saying, "When a secondary student attends an ATC, the school district no longer bears the full cost of instructing that student."

"Those education dollars are valuable, and we just wanted to try and make sure we're funding everything and not some things twice," said Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, co-chairwoman of the public education appropriations subcommittee.

But Michael Liechty, Cache County School District deputy superintendent, said his district has not been "saving any money or making any money" by sending students to Bridgerland ATC for several periods a day.

"Now, with this [change], we're going to pay for students who go down there, and we can't afford to do that," Liechty said.

Now, he said, the district is fairly liberal when it comes to allowing students to attend the ATC to explore career possibilities. But Liechty said the district would likely have to cut the equivalent of up to two full-time teachers from each of its two traditional high schools in order to keep sending as many students to Bridgerland, now that the law is changing.

Instead, he said, Cache students will still have access to the many career and technical education classes offered at the high schools, but the district likely will allow students to attend Bridgerland only for advanced career and technical education classes — such as CNA classes — during their senior years after they've completed certain prerequisite classes at the high schools. And the district probably will cut busing between the high school and ATC.

He said he expects those changes are "really going to curtail how many students will actually qualify to go to Bridgerland."

Leaders of several other districts say they're still working out how they'll deal with the change. Officials in the Alpine district, which sends students to the Mountainland ATC, plan to meet with ATC officials to discuss the situation, said Rhonda Bromley, district spokeswoman.

Duchesne district, which sends about 115 kids every hour to the Uintah Basin ATC, is also working out how to handle the change, said David Brotherson, Duchesne superintendent. But he said the loss could amount to the equivalent of about a 2 percent overall budget cut to the district.

"It's helped us provide services here we wouldn't be able to provide otherwise," Brotherson said of the current arrangement. He said, for some students, career and technical education classes help make their high school experiences more meaningful. "They find their niche in life."

Thomas Bingham, chairman of the Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT) board, which oversees the ATCs, said UCAT is working with public education to try "to find a way to still make that work." UCAT urged lawmakers not to make the change. He said there's a worry that schools might now resist sending students to ATCs.

"If that were the case, the student really is the one who loses because they may want to have some training necessary to prepare them for the job market, but that training might not be available," Bingham said.

On Friday, high school students who have benefitted from ATC classes said they hope students continue to have access to them.

"You're not going into college blindly," said Megan Doxey, an Ogden High junior who is already a CNA and hopes to become a nurse. "We know what we're getting into." —