Politics makes strange bedfellows. It also makes for some strange policy. While political leaders are calling for greater participation in community colleges, the budget recently enacted by the General Assembly has actually reduced access to longstanding programs allowing many high school students to begin college work early. With the state’s 11 percent unemployment rate driving adult students back to the classroom, high-schoolers are finding fewer opportunities to build their own resumes at local community colleges.

The community college system is no stranger to high school students. The “Learn and Earn” Early College program replacing the traditional high school curriculum was introduced five years ago.

But two well-established programs — the Huskins Act and dual enrollment — also give high school students a tuition-free path to college credit. And those were in the budgetary cross-hairs this year as the General Assembly scrambled to find savings.

Under the Huskins Act, community college instructors can be hired to teach full classes of high school students. School districts, career development centers, and other organizations have used this option to provide college coursework for interested students. Some courses have been taught even in churches.

Flexible option

A more flexible option, though, is the dual enrollment policy. It allows individual students to sign up for classroom seats left unoccupied by traditional community college students. The program is open to high school students from both public and non-public schools, and has been very popular among homeschoolers who may not have access to programs like International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. Availability varies from campus to campus and from one semester to the next, but since dual enrollment classes can be counted for both high school and college credit, some students have managed to nearly finish associate degrees by the time they graduate high school.

The latter program looks like a good deal for all involved. Once enough traditional students sign up to schedule the classroom and instructor, filling the empty seats with dual enrollment students presents little expense for the college. Instructors teach fuller classrooms and high schoolers get a head start on college coursework at no charge.

It’s not that simple, though. Kennon Briggs, executive vice president of the N.C. Community College System, explained that the colleges receive state and federal subsidies based on their number of “full time equivalents” (FTE), a ratio that calculates how many full-load, full-time students could be accommodated by the instructional hours delivered. The formula does not distinguish between a paid-tuition adult learner and a no-charge dual enrollment student.

That’s why Huskins and dual enrollment found themselves in the budgetary cross-hairs this year. Briggs said that each FTE nets a community college about $3,600 per “student” in state funding, and last year there were more than 21,000 students in these programs. Legislators also noticed that public school students involved were being funded twice, once at their high school, then again as part of the community college enrollment.

Funding found

At one point it looked like both programs would be canceled altogether, but in the final budget, the General Assembly specified funding would continue for math, science, and technology courses. Briggs said a “disproportionate number” of dual-enrolled students were taking liberal arts courses — English literature, foreign languages, sociology, or psychology. Legislators decided that high schools were already providing these classes, but upper level math and science were not universally available.

Even that concession took some lobbying. North Carolinians for Home Education, the state homeschool organization, contacted members in June and July and encourage them to e-mail their representatives and remind them how much money homeschoolers already save the state, suggesting that dual enrollment was a minimal cost compared to the benefits to both the students and the colleges.

Supply still limited

High school students faced a tough year finding available space at community colleges even before state funding grew tight. When the economy turns down, displaced workers typically enroll in continuing education classes to boost their job qualifications. Briggs said last year’s sharp increase in traditional students is continuing, and colleges are raising class size and adjusting schedules to compensate. The system grew by 15,000 FTEs last year and shows no sign of stopping for 2009-10.

There are now more than 800,000 students taking community college classes, he said, and colleges are struggling to accommodate even as the state required them to return 5 percent of next year’s budget. Briggs said many campuses are reaching a physical limit of how many students will fit into their facilities.

“We’re packed,” said Sandra Crosmun, a chemistry instructor at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Crosmun said her freshman chemistry class is nearly full, and while some science courses are limited by the size of lab facilities, she said both her lab sections are full as well. She said her colleagues are reporting crowded classes as fall semester gets underway.

“People are transferring from other schools because they can’t afford them,” Crosmun said. The community college tuition of $50 per credit hour is less than half the rate of nearby four-year colleges including Fayetteville State University and N.C. State University.

“We are the first stop and the last hope for many of our students,” Briggs said. “We appreciate the difficult position the legislature is in and the challenge Governor Perdue had to make the budget work … [but] we will keep serving every student we can.”

Hal Young is a contributor to Carolina Journal.