Composing with Intelligent Composition Software

I would love to use Garage band in my class room. Unfortunately, my school system is loyal to Dell and won't turn loose of any money to buy Macs. However, we saw enough programs in class today that there are other options out there. It seems that this would be a cheaper alternative to using Finale. Plus, students would be interested more in the digital synthesizer sounds. I could take my class to the lab to use one of the programs and spend a unit on composition. I used Garage band today for the assignment. There are endless possibilities with the program, plus more sounds that you can buy in upgrades for garage band, such as more drum sounds called jam packs. They run about $99, and I think I will sink some of my money this year to try some out. Who knows, maybe I can talk the system into buying a mac lab.