Florida has long been a leader in offering Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, and other programs that allow students to pursue college credits while they’re still in high school.
But some state lawmakers say access to those options remains limited and uneven. Three bills advanced this week would expand access to college courses.
Collegiate high school overhaul
On Tuesday, the Senate Education PreK-12 committee backed a bill by Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz that would stop school districts from limiting participation in acceleration programs offered by local community colleges.
In 2014, Legg authored a bill that required school districts and community colleges to give students in every Florida county access to a public collegiate high school program, which allowed students to complete up to two year’s worth of college courses before graduation. But Legg said some districts have limited participation.
“Some of the school districts and state colleges have an enrollment cap of 25-30 kids,” he told the committee, which he chairs. “What we wanted to do was make sure there was not an artificially low [limit on participation].”
He acknowledged the college programs can be costly for districts to operate, so SB 1076 would create a bonus system that would offer districts an extra half-student’s worth of state per-pupil funding for every student who completes 30 college credit hours in the revamped acceleration programs.
Private school fix
The same Senate panel unanimously backed a measure by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, aimed at giving more private-school students access to dual enrollment.
After a 2013 law change, some private high schools have faced charges for their students who dual enroll, limiting access to college courses for their advanced students. SB 824 would allow the state to compensate colleges for their tuition, rather than passing the cost on to the schools.
College courses for home schoolers
On Thursday, the House education committee approved a bill that, in the words of sponsor Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, would “put home education students on par with their counterparts who attend public school in Florida.”
Parts of the bill could expand home schoolers’ access to college courses. For example, it would ensure home-school students can’t be denied access to dual enrollment programs because they don’t have a traditional high school grade point average. They would still have to pass their college placement tests.
HB 835 would also clarify that home-school and private-school students do not have to pay standard tuition for dual enrollment courses offered by state colleges.
What now?
Each of these bills has cleared at least one legislative committee with overwhelming support and little controversy. But an exact copy of either of the two Senate proposals has yet to advance in the House, and the House measure has not yet advanced in the Senate (though there is some potential overlap between Eisnaugle and Stargel’s bills).
With the legislative session approaching the halfway mark, it’s not yet clear how the various proposals expanding access to college courses will come together.
