Feeling pinched by drops in funding from the state and a heavier reliance on tuition dollars, Florida public colleges are eyeing changes to dual enrollment courses as a way to free up money.
High school students who take college courses, also known as dual enrollment, don’t pay tuition. Colleges are loosely paid for the cost of educating them through enrollment-based funding by the state Legislature. But the portion of the budget that comes from the state has shrunk, with tuition paying more of college operating costs.
With around 42,000 Florida students enrolled in dual enrollment courses, according to Department of Education statistics, that amounts to over $50 million colleges don’t receive in tuition.
Florida’s college presidents have begun lobbying effort to change how dual enrollment is structured and paid for. It’s in the early stages, but college presidents have already met with superintendents and both agree that changes are in order. They are expected to file legislation in a few months for next year’s session.
But tinkering with dual enrollment is a tricky issue for colleges, which are hesitant to alarm the public school system by changing how much high schools are paid for students who take dual enrollment courses, or eliminating dual enrollment programs.
“We are just trying to find a solution that is viable to the Legislature and palatable to the public school system and secondary school system, where we are not trying to grab money from them because that’s not what we want,” said St. Johns River State College President Joe Pickens, a former legislator.
High school students who meet certain criteria are able to take college courses while in school, also known as “dual enrollment.” Unlike Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses, these students are taking actual college courses either at one of the 28 Florida college campuses, online or at a high school.
It’s become increasingly popular with high school students and their parents because it saves them money on college by essentially getting the courses for free, giving them a jump-start prior to attending college.
But one issue for colleges is how high schools receive funding for students who take dual enrollment courses.
Under current law, high schools can count students who are taking dual enrollment courses as part of their “FTE” or full-time equivalent. How many students – or FTEs – a school has directly affects how much funding it receives.
“There are instances all over the state including at (St. John’s River State College) where we have students at a high schools that are taking all six of their classes at the college, or all six are dual enrollment classes, and the high school still gets to report them for purposes of getting one FTE,” Pickens said.
Colleges also get to count dual enrollment students as part of their overall enrollment, which is loosely related to how much state funding they receive. But it doesn’t result in strict bumps in funding the way it does for K-12 schools.
But college presidents are wading carefully into this issue, courting superintendents, and pleading their case before the State Board of Education at its June meeting. Changes to dual enrollment will be difficult to navigate politically because public schools have suffered from their own budget cuts aren’t likely to give up funding without a fight.
“Dual enrollment is a good program, it’s a wonderful program,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who heads up the Florida Association for District School Superintendents. “Just like any other program, we have to look at cost/benefits, we have to look at how the costs are shared,” he said.
When there was plenty of money to around, dual enrollment wasn’t an issue, he said.
Now, “clearly there is an issue,” Montford said. “We are eager to sit with college presidents and discuss dual enrollment. It’s due it’s time and we are looking at that.”
Pickens said one potential solution lies in Bright Futures scholarships. By providing courses at no tuition cost to students, they are also preventing the state from having to pay for Bright Futures scholarships for those students, Pickens said. Most high school students eligible for dual enrollment would likely receive Bright Futures, he said.
“Isn’t it fair to have a conversation with us that we should receive some payment out of the Bright Futures savings for us offering dual enrollment?” Pickens said. “The fairest thing for us is to get Bright Futures tuition. It wouldn’t cost the student anything, or parent anything. It wouldn’t cost the school districts anything.”
But with the state budget projections next year looking nearly as grim as last year, it won’t be easy for lawmakers to find millions to pour into the Bright Futures scholarships, which it cut this year by 20 percent.
Pickens said he did not want to be “alarming” and reluctantly suggested an alternative choice could be for the Legislature to change how it calculates payment for dual enrollment, giving credit to whomever provides instruction, which would result in more dollars flowing to the colleges.
But Pickens stressed that this was not the goal. “That becomes a money grab and a turf war with K-12, which we don’t want to have,” Pickens said, adding that he is searching for a compromise.
“It may take awhile, but we at least want to have a dialogue,” Pickens said.
But one lawmaker who helps write the state’s higher education budget said she wasn’t eager to change dual enrollment, saying it was a popular program that helps students graduate faster.
“Right now, the colleges are feeling…the same kind of cuts the universities are experiencing in the K-12 system,” said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach. “It’s a very difficult time and they are looking for any source of income they can get.”
by Lilly Rockwell
