@MusakParent Dual enrollment is not at all free in Mississippi. Ole Miss provids a 50-percent scholarship to high school students, but the cost came to $300 per credit hour for my kids. The junior college I mentioned has told students on the front end that the tuition waiver will come if they enroll in their college. If they don’t, they have to pay, although the $100 per credit hours is extremely cheap. It would certainly be nice if the state paid for dual enrollment costs, but given that I’ve shelled out about $15,000 over the past few years for my kids I would certainly hate to see them start to give it away for free now.
My guess is that at most one student from this high school, and probably not that, will attend an “elite” college that won’t accept unlimited dual enrollment or AP credits. There might be a problem for students who want to go out of state and find their junior college credits won’t transfer. And many “elite” schools will accept 15 hours of AP plus 15 hours of dual enrollment, thus shaving a year off of the time in school.
Mississippi is grading schools based on what percentage of the students successfully complete “advanced” classes. Junior colleges get extra funds for every degree they award. So there are incentives for all concerned to put this system in place.
My surprise was that parents were squawking about having to pay just over $3,000 for a year’s worth of college credit. That’s a deal that is hard to beat.