Governor Kemp has decided to sign a controversial bill aimed at high school students who take advantage of the dual enrollment program.
Dual enrollment allows high school students to gain college and high school credit. Many students who participated in this program graduated high school and earned an associate degree at the same time. All of these degrees were utterly free to the students. However, Governor Kemp and supporters believe that the budget for the Dual Enrollment Program needed to be cut. As a result, Kemp made changes to the program. He also changed who can participate in the program. Students in grade 11 and grade 12 have access to participate in Dual Enrollment. These students may only take up to 30 college credit hours, which is equal to 10 classes. If students would like to take any more classes, they would have to pay out of pocket. Kemp believes that these changes were needed so that every student could participate in the program. On the other hand, many low income and minority students feel as if this was a way to keep them out of local colleges. According to studies, many students of Asian, Hispanic, and mixed-race descent used this program to pay less for secondary education.