[StBernard] State slashes early college credit funding

[Westley Annis]

State slashes early college credit funding

Written by Heather Miller   
Thursday, March 29, 2012

The roughly $5.5 million a year provided by the state for dual enrollment
students earning college credits while still in high school has been cut
from Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposed budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. 

The funding issue was brought to light through an article submitted by Ron
Chapman, a businessman and history professor at Chalmette's Nunez Community
College who writes a regular column for The St. Bernard Voice. According to
Chapman, 11,113 students statewide participated in the dual enrollment
program during the fall of 2011, collectively earning 32,629 credit hours. 

Asked about the program's funding status, the governor's Division of
Administration spokesman Michael DiResto says that the program has not been
eliminated, but its funding would, under Jindal's budget, fall under the
umbrella of the Minimum Foundation Program, which allocates a certain amount
of money per student to districts based on a complex formula. 

"[Dual enrollment] will be funded through the MFP at a level based on the
number of students who participate, instead of at a set amount that limits
participation," DiResto says. "This initiative will expand dual enrollment
options, allowing students to take up to five courses, while the dollars
follow them, rather than funding the program through a line-item and
limiting students to one class. Through this reform, state government will
be able to increase dual enrollment options for students, and create a
system that is more sustainable for taxpayers."

According to data provided by Lafayette Parish School System Marketing
Director Angie Simoneaux, Lafayette Parish public school students earned 218
credits at South Louisiana Community College; 155 credits at Acadiana
Technical College, and 138 credits at UL Lafayette during the 2010-2011
school year. It's not clear how much local universities and technical
colleges received in reimbursement from the state last year, but The Monroe
News Star reports that UL Monroe received $234,000 in reimbursement from the
state this year alone: 
ULM Outreach coordinator Marilyn McIntosh said until the program is
officially funded by the Legislature, ULM has been making students aware
that there is no guarantee.

"We've been letting kids know that at this point there is no money to fund
Early Start for tuition payments (next year)," McIntosh said. "These
students are scheduling classes with the understanding that there will be no
funds to pay for the class. Hopefully that will change."
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Holly Boffe, Lafayette's
BESE rep, says she believes that under the new funding formula, the $234,000
ULM received from the state this year would have been paid by the local
school districts who send their students to ULM. 

In other words, Boffe confirms, the program will still be available to
students who choose to participate, but local districts will be forced to
foot the bill without the roughly $5.5 million that the state has budgeted
for the program in the past.

"The children can use that [MFP] money for different programs," Boffe says.
"The districts had line-item budgets for this type of thing in the past they
received additional funding from the state. This is where the districts get
so angry. But when things aren't part of MFP all it takes is a strike on the
budget for those programs to disappear."

In his submission, Chapman blasts the funding cuts for the program, noting
that "the cost of this progressive educational endeavor ... is a pittance
for the return in investment." 

"This state spills that much!" Chapman writes. "The hope is that individual
schools will 'find' the money in their own Minimum Foundation Budgets to
finance this need. I laude the governor for trying his best to balance the
state's dismal finances, however, it might be wise to look beyond education
and health care to meet the needs.  In the rush to trim expenses, Louisiana
has destroyed one of the most progressive educational programs the state has
developed in years."