Georgia lawmakers should simplify the state\u2019s dual enrollment program for high-school students wishing to get a jump on post-secondary education, do more to publicize the program and provide more funding, a legislative study committee recommended Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The joint House-Senate panel unanimously approved a report following several meetings around the state this summer and fall exploring ways to make the dual enrollment program financially sustainable while speeding up the progression of students earning credit for taking college courses into high-demand careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other things, the committee recommended doing away with a three-year sunset provision on the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen it comes to a time frame, we want continuity,\u201d said Georgia Rep. Matt Dubnik, R-Gainesville, one of the committee\u2019s co-chairmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study committee also recommended clarifying state law by providing a legal definition for the term \u201chigh-demand careers.\u201d Currently, the list includes 18 careers ranging from welding to criminal justice, but there\u2019s no specific criteria for either adding to or subtracting from the list to keep up with workforce requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt needs to be based on data we can track and monitor,\u201d Dubnik said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The panel also suggested the state look to increase the number of \u201carticulated agreements\u201d between the University System of Georgia and the state\u2019s technical colleges, which allow technical college students to transfer after two years to complete their degrees at a four-year state college or university without losing credits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of these arrangements are done locally or regionally,\u201d said state Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, the study committee\u2019s other co-chairman. \u201cIt would be in the best interests of our students if there were more uniformity throughout the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond steps to simplify the dual enrollment program, the committee also recommended the state take steps to make information about the program more accessible to students and parents and boost funding to hire more high-school counselors and technical college instructors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brass said how many of the panel\u2019s recommendations would require legislation and how many could be implemented through policy changes remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis report doesn\u2019t lock the legislature into anything,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re only making recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee\u2019s report will now be forwarded to the full General Assembly to take up during the 2024 legislative session beginning in January.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATLANTA \u2013 Georgia lawmakers should simplify the state\u2019s dual enrollment program for high-school students wishing to get a jump on post-secondary education, do more to publicize the program and provide more funding, a legislative study committee recommended Wednesday. The joint House-Senate panel unanimously approved a report following several meetings around the state this summer and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140153,"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-140061","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\/140061","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=140061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}