The three-year push to fix a funding glitch that undermined some Florida students’ access to college courses is set to continue in next year’s legislative session.
State Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, has filed a bill (SB 824) that would require the state’s community colleges to strike agreements with local private schools, allowing their high school students to take some college courses free of charge.
Dual enrollment allows students to take college courses that also count toward their high school diplomas. A 2013 law changed the way Florida funded the courses for public-school students, requiring school districts to foot more of the bill for courses their students took at local colleges.
After the change, some community colleges, though not all, began billing private schools for dual-enrollment courses their students took. That created a dilemma: Private schools would either face thousands of dollars in new charges, or counsel students to avoid some seeking college credit.
Under Stargel’s proposal, the state would provide funding to compensate colleges for the tuition private-school students would otherwise pay.
That’s a change from last year’s version of the bill, which contemplated colleges enrolling private-school students as a “loss leader,” in the hopes that those students would continue their college education on their campuses after they graduate high school.
