OP, as Lucie says, the US educational system is really thousands of systems, as the states are in charge. Then depending of what districts can afford in that state.
These free programs exist in states and districts where people pay higher taxes to fund the schools. You could also move to one of those places.
Repeat- getting A’s is NOT a reason to get free college courses. Getting A’s is NOT the same as being gifted etc.
Students are NOT owed anything beyond the HS curriculum, regardless of their abilities as well.
Nothing in life is “free”- you are suggesting someone else pick up the tab just because a student was awarded an A- not necessarily earned one.
@nmc2015 It’s not that high school students should not learn; it’s that when they are ready to enter college, they pay like everyone else unless they receive some sort of scholarship. Besides, what is the actual difference between a high school student and a college student other than age, knowledge level, and a high school diploma? Why should high school students be eligible to take classes for free while college students cannot?
Another argument I would make is that you advocate for college classes to be free for high school students receiving A’s in previous level classes. However, high schools are not made all the same. There are different levels of grade inflation at different high schools, thus making it easier to get an A in, say, Calculus BC at High School A versus High School B. Even though Student B worked harder for his/her grade than Student A, Student A is the only one getting the benefits.
Also, the students receiving scholarships from colleges are usually the students that are at the top of that college’s accepted incoming freshman class.They deserve those scholarships. The students who are at the top 15-20% of that college’s accepted incoming freshman class are probably good students, however, they are not the best. And as countless famous people have told us, being the best is what really matters.
Students getting mostly A’s in HS are near the top of the HS - in other words the ones going to going to college. They do necessarily represent the top kids in college. College classes are generally much more difficult than college classes.
As a practical matter, there are enough moderately advanced students that most high schools find it worth their while to offer AP level courses, which are a step more advanced than the standard high school curriculum. There are fewer even more advanced students who may go beyond AP level and take college courses while in high school. In many cases, low cost community colleges are available to such students.
Now, if the student has exhausted the low cost community college offerings in something like math, then there may be an issue, but it is likely that such students are so rare that most high schools have never had to consider them. Also, many students are content to wait to get to their college of matriculation to take junior/senior level college courses, since the nearby colleges that they could take courses at while in high school (even if they were low cost or free) may not be optimal. So such a student is often satisfied by taking other courses at the community college instead. I.e. the OP’s “problem” is a very uncommon one.
“As a practical matter, there are enough moderately advanced students that most high schools find it worth their while to offer AP level courses, which are a step more advanced”
Most hs do NOT offer AP. Check the prevalence. Some or many might be better descriptors.
I attended a HS that was too small to offer even Trig on a regular basis so such places exist for poster’s here who are accustomed to larger high schools. However, my state offered a residential public school for just that reason. I know there are at least several states who do the same. Without OP giving a state, we can’t help there.
I suggest a course in economics which will solve the root issue of free college but beyond economics, the structure of college vs high school can’t be ignored. As numerous posters have reiterated, if the local HS is deficient, that is an issue for the local school district, not college. Further, I don’t know of any state where the secondary education and college education systems are merged. They are completely different pots of money at the state level with secondary highly supplemented by local taxes of some sort.
Even the top private schools with $60k+ costs of annual attendance that offer significant need based aid to middle class families are transferring the costs of education. Some of that is transferred to endowments from the past generosity of others. Some of that is transferred to full pay families.
I checked some low performing public high schools in California (one of which proudly has on its home page that a student was accepted to a four year university), and they all offer AP courses.
You know better than to accept anecdote. What % of the approx 30,000 high schools in the US offer any AP classes?
It certainly used to be the case that most high schools didn’t offer AP courses. Since the advent of things like Jay Mathews’s Challenge Index,* however, the number of high schools offering them has shot up, and I would be surprised if “most” isn’t correct now, at least for public high schools.
During the 2012-2013 school year:
Approximately 132,500 teachers taught AP classes in nearly 14,000 public high schools.
^^ That would be approximately half, I believe. See here: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/hsfacts.html.
^^ Slightly more than half—the ~14,000 number is public high schools, and the link says there are 26,407 public secondary schools. (I’m assuming, perhaps wrongly, that “secondary” means 9–12 or 10–12 high schools, plus 6–12 or 7–12 combined middle/high schools; if it includes middle schools it’s much more than half.)
In California, it appears that continuation schools account for a large number of high schools, but a small number of students. They make up about a quarter of the public high schools, but enroll only about a thirtieth of the students in public high schools, according to http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/ceffingertipfacts.asp and http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/cefenrollgradetype.asp .
^^ Yes, the years don’t quite align, though, so you can’t do a proper comparison. But it does appear we’ve surpassed the 50% threshold.
Still probably not “most,” but certainly a majority of US high schools.
Ok, let’s rephrase it:
Most public high schools that are not continuation, reform, or other specialty schools offer AP courses or other similar level moderately advanced courses (e.g. IB HL, dual enrollment arrangement with a local college).
So roughly half of all hs offer AP. That’s not “most.” And what IS with the perseveration on California? I swear there is not a thread in which we don’t get treated to the stats on California, as if anyone in the other 49 states cares. Sheesh. Get over yourselves.
Okay, I’m a sociolinguist and dialectologist by profession, so I just have to offer an aside, because I find it fascinating at a professional level that for @LucieTheLakie [ETA: and @Pizzagirl, too] “most” requires something well in excess of a simple majority, while for me that word is valid once a simple majority is reached. (I have some friends who work in theoretical semantics who would find this really, really cool, too.)
And that’s all for the WordNerdness—now back to the thread… 
Sorry about the California thing, PG, but we do have 1/8 of the students in the US, and there are lots of stats available on CA gov’t websites. OP won’t say what state, so people are trying to communicate that CC is free to HS students in some places.
Anyway, where we are in CA, any high schooler (summer after 8th grade and up) can take community college classes for free (except parking and textbooks). They can take most any class, except a few that are open only to 17 and over. The money comes out of the CC budget, but since HS kids are the last to register, they don’t add any sections for HS students. DS is taking an online CC class from an CC about 300 miles away. It was only $1 to register (activity fee) plus the $100+ for a multivariable textbook.
huh? Doesn’t most mean more than 50%?