Students in local high schools could have an easier time obtaining and using college credits earned in high school pending the passage of a new bill introduced by Senator Maggie Hassan on Oct. 30.
The Fast Track To and Through College Act is a bipartisan bill that aims to increase college completion rates and reduce overall college costs by filling gaps in existing early college processes. Specifically, it would ensure that New Hampshire colleges accept credits earned in participating high schools, and offer further funds available for high school students and faculty to complete college coursework.
The bill builds off the framework of existing Advanced Placement (AP) courses and Running Start programs, where for a tuition cost of $150, students can take college-level curriculum and receive credits while still in high school.
The program is a partnership between high schools and the Community Colleges of New Hampshire. Running Start programs are available in Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle and High School, Conant High School, ConVal High School, and its Region 14 Applied Technology Center.
Should the Fast Track To and Through College Act pass, it would create a grant program dedicated to covering student tuition and professional development costs associated with college-level coursework.
The Act would also extend federal Pell Grants, grants for low-income students in postsecondary programs, to allow the grants to be used for college coursework during high school.
ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo-Saunders said that the Community Colleges of New Hampshire has already made it fairly easy to earn easily transferable credits in high schools, but “the ability to access federal resources for that would be great for our students for our students and communities,” she said.
Rizzo-Saunders said 135 students were enrolled in a Running Start course at ConVal High School at the start of October.
“The bill has bipartisan support, and Senator Hassan is working with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to build additional support for the bill as it advances through the Senate,” said a representative from Sen. Hassan’s office.