Simplifying Georgia\u2019s dual enrollment program is the key to making it financially sustainable, a former school counselor who now runs a private counseling business told state lawmakers Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUntil we can get to the clarity piece, we\u2019re never going to have improvement,\u201d Jill Oldham, co-owner of South River Counseling and Consulting in Conyers, told members of a joint legislative study committee looking for ways to ensure the future stability of what is widely considered a successful program. Oldham was appointed to the panel by Gov. Brian Kemp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The General Assembly created the study committee this year not only to develop recommendations for making the dual enrollment program financially sustainable but to accelerate the movement of high school students earning credit for taking college courses into high-demand careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An issue driving the formation of a study committee is the dual enrollment program\u2019s cost, which peaked at $105 million in fiscal 2020 before declining to $76 million this year. The General Assembly sought to rein in those costs by passing legislation in 2020 capping the program at 30 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, the study committee discussed a series of recommendations expected to emerge in its final report later this fall, including removing the current three-year sunset on the dual enrollment program, increasing funding to hire more high-school counselors and technical college instructors, and establishing a central point for data sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But much of Tuesday\u2019s meeting focused on the need to more clearly structure each of the program\u2019s 18 high-demand career pathways so students know exactly what courses they need to take to qualify for the jobs they\u2019re interested in and don\u2019t waste time and money on irrelevant courses. Legislation then-Gov. Nathan Deal steered through the General Assembly in 2014 offers full technical college tuition coverage for students who pursue careers in any of those 18 high-demand fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greg Dozier, commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia, said the state\u2019s technical colleges have entered into 18 \u201carticulated agreements\u201d with the University System of Georgia \u2013 all in high-demand careers \u2013 that allow technical college students to transfer to a four-year state college or university after two years without losing credits. In addition to those 18 agreements, which apply statewide, local technical colleges have worked out 35 articulated agreements with nearby four-year schools that just apply locally, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we want our kids to get into the workforce as quickly as possible \u2026 articulation is a key,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, one of the committee\u2019s co-chairmen, said the technical college system should not consider expanding the number of high-demand careers beyond 18 without defining what \u201chigh-demand\u201d means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we add something every time the political winds shift \u2026 at some point, it\u2019s not going to be sustainable anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Dozier said holding the line on high-demand careers, or even reducing the number, to save money is easier said than done because Georgia has such a wide variety of workforce needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt seems like everything we train on is in high demand,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to shrink it versus to grow it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brass said simplifying the process school counselors, students and parents must navigate to sign up for dual enrollment is critical if local school systems are to buy in to the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to buy into something you don\u2019t understand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study committee plans one final meeting to further discuss and adopt recommendations for the full General Assembly to consider during the 2024 legislative session starting in January.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATLANTA \u2013 Simplifying Georgia\u2019s dual enrollment program is the key to making it financially sustainable, a former school counselor who now runs a private counseling business told state lawmakers Tuesday. \u201cUntil we can get to the clarity piece, we\u2019re never going to have improvement,\u201d Jill Oldham, co-owner of South River Counseling and Consulting in Conyers, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11783],"tags":[14072],"class_list":["post-130338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-dual-enrollment","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}