Tuesday, August 30, 2005

High School & College at the Same Time.


Dual enrollment is a popular option among homeschoolers. It may become more popular for all students now that the lottery is willing to pay for some of it. Though lottery architect Sen. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) isn't enthusiastic:

"The purpose of the (HOPE) scholarship was to give them an incentive to make good grades in high school and then hopefully give them a reason to go to school in Tennessee … so we'd have better and more high school graduates," Cohen said.

"By giving kids dual enrollment … you're basically giving away money, and while the kids are good students to be able to go to college while in high school, there's no reason to believe that that's going to make them more likely to go to Tennessee colleges." From the Tennessean.

I had to laught at that objection--'we're basically giving away money'. Considering some of the contortions that the legislature went through to keep the qualifying grades as low as possible, despite the "Best and Brightest" advertising pre-lottery vote, that seems like a pretty funny phrase to me.

I don't find any details on the state's website, or a search feature. You can get contact info for TSAC here. According to Brian Noland, head of TSAC, in this WVLT report, parents should pay the costs up front and seek a reimbursement.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kay -- I hope to figure out how to dual enroll my 8th grader in high school/college next year when he is a freshman. I have to see if I can do this logistically with his high school (academic magnet assuming he meets the grade requirement this 6 weeks) and a local college.

I don't know where the legislator believes the kids will go to be dually enrolled in high school/college. I believe most will stay locally which means Tennessee colleges.

There is a program (I am sure there are many more) out of state that seeks the best and brightest students across the country to enroll in their programs. I have a friend who son has been asked to consider this option. The mother is struggling with letting her 16 year old head to college out of state.

Thanks for the post --

Elizabeth