Area school districts and local colleges are rewriting the rules for high school dual-enrollment courses to meet the changing demands of Florida lawmakers.
Beginning in August, all school districts will have to pay tuition for public and home-schooled high school students in their county to take classes at area colleges. Previously, districts only had to pay for textbooks and materials while the colleges footed the bill for students enrolled in the courses.
“It’s a game-changer, but we’ll just have to roll with it and move forward,” said Bill Emerson, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Santa Rosa County.
It’s unclear now what the impact might be for the students, but the revised law still calls for them to be able to take dual-enrollment courses at no cost.
“The opportunity for students still has not changed,” according to Sasha Jarrell, a vice president at Northwest Florida State College, which handles all the dual-enrollment classes for students who live in Okaloosa and Walton counties.
Under the new agreement, school districts will pay the colleges $71.98 per credit hour for each student who takes a class at a college campus, but they will not have to pay the additional fees a typical college student does, such as a capital improvement or technology fee, Jarrell said.
On average, a single class is worth three credit hours, she said.
In the past year school year, students in Okaloosa and Walton counties took more than 7,000 credit hours at NWF State, according to data Jarrell provided.
“This is (a change) for the post-secondary side that’s going to increase our revenue,” she said. “ … But I don’t know that we found the best solution.”
According to Senate President Don Gaetz, the decision to change who pays for dual enrollment came after lawmakers increased the overall budget for school funding, but at the same time tried to cut repetitive costs.
Previously, school districts not only didn’t have to pay tuition for courses their students took at the colleges, but received state funding as if the students were still in one of their classrooms.
“Taxpayers ought to pay the one provider who is actually providing the course work and instruction,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville.
Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Mary Beth Jackson said she’s concerned about the impact the change will have on her district’s budget because an avearage of 688 students enroll in college courses during the fall and spring semesters, and most of the additional money the district received from the state already is tied up to cover costs from other mandates.
“At first glance it is a cost that we have not had to incur and now we do,” she said. “So our job is now where are we going to find the money.”
She said one option is having more teachers get certification from NWF State to teach dual-enrollment classes at the high school. If that happens, the district will remain responsible for only the course material costs and will keep state funding for having students in its classrooms.
Emerson said Santa Rosa County also is considering that route and perhaps limiting the number of dual-enrollment credit hours a student could take in high school to 60 — the hours needed to earn an associate’s degree. Right now, he estimates it will cost the district about $1 million next school year for its students to take classes at Pensacola State College.
“We want to provide the service to our kids and parents, so we’ll make it work the best we can,” Emerson said.
Walton County, which has significantly fewer students than Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, also is taking a hard look at the potential impact.
“We’ve got to see what we hammer out in our articulation agreement (with NWF State),” said Alexis Tibbetts, who is an instructional support coordinator for the district.
Leaders from the county will meet with college officials at the beginning of July to draw up the terms of the new agreement, she said.
It has to be finalized and sent to the Florida Department of Education by early August. Until then, it’s hard to say what the impact will be, but Tibbetts did say district officials understand the value of the dual-enrollment courses for students who want college credit but don’t want to have to pass an Advanced Placement course.
“Dual enrollment is a great option for a lot of students,” Tibbetts said. “And it’s a big, big money-saver for parents.”
School districts aren’t the only one’s adjusting to the change. NWF State’s Collegiate High School is looking at between $560,000 and $580,000 in additional costs under the new law, according to Donna Utley, the college’s associate vice president of business services who also oversees finances for the high school.
Last year, students at the 10th- through 12th- grade school accumulated more than 7,900 credit hours. Some of those hours were earned by sophomores, but most were earned by the juniors and seniors, who take all of their classes as dual enrollment, Utley said.
Unlike the school districts, Collegiate High isn’t receiving any more money to help defer the cost, so NWF State is stepping up to cover the expense for its charter school, she said.
“It’s just a shifting of where the money is,” Utley said.