[A] plan to have local school budgets pick up half the cost for high school students who take college courses during their junior and senior years may be shifted back to the state Education Fund.
That issue was discussed Friday in the House Education Committee as it began reviewing Gov. Peter Shumlin’s 2016 proposed budget, and items that will impact the Education Fund.
A memorandum from Rep. Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, to the House Education Committee asked that the budget’s sections on adult education and literacy and dual enrollment be reviewed, among other items that affect the Education Fund.
Rep. Sarah Buxton, D-Tunbridge, said the governor’s proposal will take half the cost of the dual enrollment off the districts’ shoulders and would draw from the Education Fund instead.
This was the first year that local school districts were asked to pick up half the costs of the dual enrollment program.
“Current law requires that districts pay half of the college tuition of dual enrollment students,” the memo notes. “This mode of funding is hindering the equity of the dual enrollment program. The administrative work needed to collect the districts’ shares is also significant. The proposed language replaces the districts’ share with Education Fund,” dollars appropriated, the proposed change in the governor’s budget shows.
The total appropriation, $4 million, is the same as it was last year, the memo notes.
According to the Vermont State College’s website, “Dual Enrollment programs … are designed for high school students who are academically prepared to enroll in college-level courses and could benefit from that experience.”
The language change would result in the program being paid half from the Next Generation Initiative Fund created by the state earlier to support the dual enrollment program, and the other half coming from the Education Fund.
The fund sees the Legislature each year appropriate funding “for programs that encourage Vermonters to live and work in Vermont.”
Jill Remick, spokeswoman for the Vermont Agency of Education, said in 2013 the Legislature passed the Flexible Pathways Initiative, which included a provision to expand the statewide dual enrollment program, “entitling all eligible Vermont publicly funded high school juniors and seniors to two free college courses.”
The projected cost of dual enrollment this year is $1.2 million, said Remick, noting half would come from the Next Generation Funds within the General Fund and the other $600,000 would come this year from the Flexible Pathways allocation in the Education Fund, “so would not create any new financial pressure for the Education Fund this year.”
Remick said, “Under current law, the education fund will already begin picking up this 50 percent share of dual enrollment in 2015, this proposal would shift that from local budgets to a direct payment from the education fund. This change will make it more efficient and save administrative costs, while also ensuring that all students have equal access to this opportunity.”
She said, “Without this change, this coming year every student who participates in dual enrollment will generate a bill for half of the cost of their course from the general fund and half of the cost from a local budget.”
“This will mean thousands of bills to be processed, which will be a significant strain for local districts, the Agency of Education, the administrator of the dual enrollment program, as well as for other partners involved with the administration of the program,” according to Remick.
Remick said, “For the general fund portion, we are able to tally up all the students who took advantage of the opportunity and generate one bill for the Next Generation Funds, and this change would allow the same streamlined process for the local 50 percent cost share from the education fund.”
She said that the shift to have local districts pick up half the costs showed some districts “either discourage students from taking advantage of this opportunity or simply not advertising the opportunity so fewer students will take the college courses.”
“This sets up a very inequitable process, as all students are not getting equal opportunity to hear about and participate in this valuable opportunity,” she said.
Remick pointed to a funding change by the state of Georgia that resulted in a 25 percent drop in participation. She said the change recommended in the governor’s budget would avoid that drop-off.
