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Hombre
09-22-2015, 06:53 PM
Washington has a pretty cool school program that allows Junior and Seniors to attend college those years. We had that too when I was growing up but it was a lot more basic. You could take a class or two and gain some college credits. Here if you have maintained a high GPA, taken advanced classes, and test in the student can do running start. My daughter is doing it this year as a junior. She has 0 high school classes and if she maintains her grades when she graduates as a senior she'll have her Associates. That's two years off college!

What I don't get about the program, and I'm not complaining, is it is 1/20th the cost of a full college year. If schools can do this why is college so expensive? My personal opinion is guaranteed loans have a lot to do with college expense. Money is so easy to get to ensure that everyone who wants to attend can. College's raise rates yearly because college is "affordable" and people have the money to pay. The issue is the Return On Investment on many college degrees no longer pencils out.

We need to take a long look at how college tuitions are funded and the return. We also need to look at the 1 size fits all programs. College isn't for everyone. I personally dropped out and opted for a vocational school which didn't hurt me one bit. I later went back and got my college degree, but I can't say it's helped me one bit either.

Chicken Dinner
09-23-2015, 11:53 AM
What a neat idea and I agree that the cost of college is way out of line.

BarryBobPosthole
09-23-2015, 12:42 PM
Great program and Hooray for Kensie!

Its looking more and more like kids will have to commit to either a career tech type deal or the college route much earlier than we had to when we were in school. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I think its not impossible for public education to provide a sound basis for either course, given that options are provided for like AP or college credit courses as electives and for VICA/DECCA type deals for others. But if a kid wants to get a plain old HS diploma, he or she should be able to make that decision aftter a year or two and have the educational basis to pursue whatever it is they decide.

BKB