As a member of the Assembly Education Committee, Joseph Saladino hears plenty about the latest cutting-edge program to better prepare high school students for the complicated world that awaits them.

"It's always some revolutionary new model, usually from Germany or China," said the Republican lawmaker from Long Island. His response is always the same. "I tell people we've already got that. It's called BOCES."

Saladino should know. Two decades ago, as a high school senior in Massapequa, he spent his afternoons on academic subjects  - and mornings learning marine mechanics at Nassau County BOCES, the largest of the state's 37 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services.

Considering the direction his professional life has taken, Saladino could write off his BOCES training as a footnote in a career that includes working as a broadcast journalist and 16 years in local government before being elected to the Assembly in 2004.

Instead, the man who by all accounts is the only graduate of a BOCES program among the 212 members of the state Legislature, says the training resonates with him daily, whether he's on the Assembly floor promoting ways to preserve marine resources or cruising Long Island's Great South Bay in the "Pride of New York," a fishing boat he expertly restored.

It's a message he passes on to a group of students from his BOCES alma mater who have come to Albany for the day with their teachers, administrators and parents to urge lawmakers to restore BOCES aid that was cut from the proposed state budget.

The way students learn in BOCES, Saladino tells them, makes them special.

"It's the combination of lessons and experience you get at the same time," he explained. "I'm big on internships for youth, and BOCES  - in essence  - is a great internship, regardless of what your plans are."

Meeting earlier that day with Saladino, NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin agreed. "We don't need to create something new. All BOCES needs is to be funded properly," he said.

Describing himself as "needing more motivation" in high school, Saladino went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from New York Institute of Technology.

He views BOCES as "a bridge" between high school and whatever career follows  - a bridge he'd like to see more students cross. "Can you imagine, for instance, how much better an engineer someone would make if they had some hands-on BOCES training?" he asked.

 - John Strachan