Dual-enrollment classes face ax
 

By Cece Todd and Le Templar
East Valley Tribune

February 7, 2003

 

About 11,000 high school students in Maricopa County would no longer be able to get community college credit for classes taken in high school under budget proposals from Gov. Janet Napolitano and leading Republican lawmakers.
As part of their plans to balance the state budget, the governor and legislators propose to take $4.05 million — including $2.64 million from the Maricopa Community College District — from dual-enrollment programs.

Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Mesa, introduced a bill that would keep colleges from being funded for dual-enrollment high school students when the instructor is an employee of the high school and the class is offered at the high school.

Chris Chesrown, spokeswoman for the community colleges, said that would lead the colleges to discontinue dual enrollment "because there wouldn't be a way to pay for it.”

“I fully understand the angst the governor and the Legislature are feeling right now over the budget,” said Carol Hughes, spokeswoman for the Scottsdale Unified School District, where 200 to 400 students take are taking dual-enrollment classes. “But dual enrollment is a wonderful, wonderful program for students and parents. College can be intimidating for some students, but when they can gently segue into a college career, it's a nice, easy start.”

State officials counter that dual enrollment is an easy way for school districts and community colleges to “double dip” into state funds that are becoming increasingly scarce.

"They are both getting a payment for the same high school student," said Monica Klaschka, the governor's budget manager.

Dual-enrollment classes are taught at on high schools by teachers approved to teach classes at the community college level. The teacher may be one of the high school teachers or a community college teacher who comes to the high school. Students pay the college per credit hour for each dual-enrollment course they take.

The school district gets paid state funding for the student because he or she is taking a class at a district school, and the community college gets state funding for offering the class, said Chuck Essigs, adviser to the superintendent in the Mesa Unified School District.

Chris Bustamante, MCCD's director of state relations, said college rules and a state law passed last year are in place to prevent double payments. The colleges receive state money only for high school students who take college classes in addition to a complete day of high school studies, he said.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said state officials don't believe the community colleges have eliminated the double payments.

"We have in theory, but we have no empirical evidence that is the case," Pearce said.

Bustamante said lawmakers might not understand that dual-enrollment programs probably will be canceled without the state funding.

"It saves families money. It saves students money. And in the long run, we think it saves the state money," Bustamante said, adding the program is encouraging more Arizona students to go to college.

Chris Walton, a 16-year-old junior at Mesa's Dobson High School, is taking two dual-enrollment classes — physics and pre-calculus — through Rio Salado College.

“I think it's highly beneficial,” Walton said. “At a college, it's pretty tough. There's no one-on-one with teachers. Here at high school, we get one-on-one.”
Dobson principal Steve Green said about 150 students are taking dual-enrollment classes at his school. He pointed out that the Legislature created dual enrollment as a way of encouraging high school students to take tougher course work.

“It's kind of ironic at a time when we're trying to improve achievement levels, we're going to take out the incentive to take these more rigorous classes,” Green said.

Chandler mother Trish Miller looks at it differently. When her son and daughter wanted to take more rigorous classes, they enrolled in Advanced Placement classes at Chandler High School. Students get college credit for those AP classes depending on how they perform on national Advanced Placement tests, Miller said, adding the tests cost about $80 each.

“Dual enrollment is a wonderful opportunity for a lot of people,” she said. “But we chose not to pay for dual enrollment because we were already paying for (Advanced Placement) exams.”