New Democrat Update - February 2006
High School: A Relay Station, not a Finish Line
One way to make high school a much more meaningful experience is to offer students an opportunity to go to college tuition-free. For example, at Sheridan and Denver’s Abraham Lincoln high schools, the school districts get state funding based on enrollment and use that money to pay their students’ community college tuition.
The bad news is that, last year, the Colorado Department of Education determined that such “dual-enrollment” programs cannot be legally funded with state education dollars. The good news is that Democrats in the legislature are planning to make these critical opportunities available to more Colorado high school students.
For too long, the last two years in high school have functioned as a rest stop between the demands of secondary education and whatever follows. Many students find the final two years of high school boring and tiresome, otherwise popularly known as “senioritis.”
Senioritis is a luxury no longer affordable in a highly competitive global economy. The latter years of high school should serve as a consummation of what already has been accomplished and a launching pad for what lies ahead. Finishing high school should be the embarkation point that launches the well-prepared student toward success in postsecondary education or the ever more-complex workplaces of the new economy.
In other words, high school graduation should not be a finish line but a relay station. Today, the handoff is fumbled and the baton too often dropped.
Maybe just as important, K-12 and postsecondary education institutions frequently find themselves doing each other’s job. Two- and four-year colleges offer basic secondary school work in reading, writing, and mathematics as remedial classes, while high schools offer course work for credit in the form of advanced placement.
According to the Colorado Department of Education, 30 percent of 2004 high school graduates needed remedial classes in college. It is no wonder that more than one-quarter of four-year-college freshmen and close to half of those in community colleges do not return for a second year.
Helping with those problems saves both time and money. The reduced time it takes to get a postsecondary degree decreases ever-rising tuition costs faced by parents and students. Streamlining the duplicative work now being provided by secondary and postsecondary institutions is also a good deal for taxpayers.
Minnesota was the first state in the nation to offer dual enrollment, which it calls the Postsecondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEO). In 2001, families there saved $11 million, while the state reduced expenses by nearly $32 million. Washington state‘s PSEO program saved families $22 million and taxpayers almost $35 million.
Making secondary education more meaningful and challenging also motivates more students to graduate at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Today, Colorado’s high school graduation rate is 30th in the nation. That alone costs the state economy at least $3.4 billion a year in lost earning potential.
As the result of better preparation for the academic rigors of college, dual-enrollment students earn higher grades in higher education and stay there longer. Their participation in actual college courses also helps with the social skills needed to succeed in higher education. According to a study that analyzed Minnesota’s twenty-year dual-enrollment experience, “On average, PSEO students attending courses at college and university campuses consistently earned higher grades than college and university students taking the same courses.”
Graduating from college has real consequences for both students and the state. About 27 years ago, the college premium (the difference between the earnings of college-educated workers and high school graduates) was approximately 35 percent. By 1997, that premium, as well as the one for workers that attended some college, doubled. Of course, higher education levels will result in increased overall economic growth for the state.
Dual enrollment may also boost the number of minority college graduates. Approximately 70 percent of African-American and Hispanic students in Florida’s program, who have taken at least one concurrent high school-college course, graduate from college. That is a considerable improvement from 45 percent and 54 percent, respectively from those communities, from those who did not participate in the program.
Of course, there are important lessons for Colorado to learn from the experience of other states. A number of factors are key to a successful effort.
First, high schools generally must prepare each and every student for postsecondary education and training. As Gully Stanford of the Colorado Department of Higher Education was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News, “There are those who will say ‘Not all students need to go to college.’ I would say, all students need to be adequately prepared to make that choice. Otherwise, you are shortchanging them.”
Second, a PSEO initiative should also be considered within the context of a future seamless education system (from preschool through higher education). Fortunately, State Sen. Ron Tupa (D-Boulder) and State Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Colorado Springs) are proposing creation of a P-16 council that will study and consider dual enrollment within such a structure.
Third, Colorado’s initiative should require that high schools and colleges share the funding burden for dually enrolled students. Without a reliable funding stream, high tuition costs could exclude economically disadvantaged students. Even with that in place, the legislation should account for barriers that have shut out some students from participating in dual enrollment in other states.
Fourth, the needs of academically and technically oriented students should be balanced. Dual enrollment should include tech-programs (some of which require associate degrees) that focus on high-skill jobs in engineering, health care and business, as well as the mechanical, industrial and practical arts.
Finally, early on, a private-public partnership should be created to ensure all parents and students understand the program. Clarity about what courses will transfer from one institution to another is especially essential.
Piedad F. Robertson, president of the Education Commission of the States in Denver, has written that dual enrollment “may well be the most significant education reform since the rise of community colleges in the latter half of the 20th century.” Clearly, it is much too good of an opportunity to pass up.
A “Must Read” Memo
All Democrats should read the latest memo from national DLC President Al From and pollster Mark Penn. The memo and accompanying poll is a start on laying “out what Democrats need to do to forge the kind of broad based center-left coalition of core and swing voters that we need to win in 2006 and 2008.
The bottom line is this: because there are more self-identified conservatives than liberals in the electorate, if Republicans win all conservatives, Democrats need to win all of the self-identified liberals and more than seven of every 10 self-identified moderates just to break even. That is not an ideological statement, it's simple arithmetic. Simply put, Democrats cannot win unless they build a coalition of all liberals and most moderates.”
The memo has already stirred considerable discussion in political circles. Don’t stand on the sidelines - join the dialogue!