States offer early graduation incentives
article by Nancy Swanson | February 08, 2012
For many teenagers graduating high school can’t come soon enough. What many of these students don’t know is that in many states there are often incentives in place to get students to graduate early. Often a school will offer college courses for students to take as a part of their public education, but many are now offering college scholarships to early graduates.
Idaho is the latest state to provide a path for students to graduate early as the state legislature looks to pass a bill that would pay to add summer courses for students wishing to graduate early.
Dubbed the “8 in 6 Program,” the bill allows students to take one extra credit each year starting in the seventh grade which would allow students to have as much as 2 years of college under their belt by the time they graduate high school. However, under the new program, the state would have to pay $225 per month for online courses to be taught.
Idaho state representative, Steven Thayn of Emmett, Idaho, who introduced the bill, explained that this could potentially save students and parents a lot of money in college costs.
“If they can see if I take some summer classes and take a full load during the school year I can actually save $10,000 with my college expense, maybe even $20,000. Well, I think that is a lot of incentive,” Thayn said to KTVB.
Other states have similar programs. For example in Texas, there is a college scholarship set up for students who graduate early called, the Early High School Graduation Scholarship.
Under this program, students who graduate in no more than 36 months becomes eligible to receive $2,000 to use for college tuition and fees. On top of that if they graduate with 15 credit hours of college credit, they can receive another $1,000. The state of Missouri is looking to set up a similar scholarship program.
While these programs are set up to help students get a head start on college critics say that the programs are not always practical or sometimes even feasible.
In Missouri, some administrators feel that even with the incentive of college scholarships, it may be difficult for students to graduate early as the trend is for schools to increase the credits needed to graduate.
Bernard DuBray, superintendent of the Fort Zumwalt School District explained to O’Fallon Patch that few students can graduate in 36 months and it is only on rare occasions that they get a few students to graduate in 41 months.
In Idaho some are worried about getting universities to participate in the online courses.
“Currently there's a few roadblocks that need to be overcome — mainly getting the universities and colleges on-board to be able to get the course work, so students can actually earn an associate degree while attending a high school,” Jared Jenks, principal of Sugar-Salem High School in Sugar City, Idaho said to KIDK in Idaho.
In spite of these issues, proponents are optimistic that students will be able to take advantage of these programs and get a head start on their college education.
“If we empower them, if we tap into that resource of student desire to learn, we can get more return on our investment than just what the money itself will seem to indicate,” Thayn said.
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