High school dual-enrollment students comprised more than a quarter of community college fall 2021 enrollment in 15 states and at 325 community colleges across the country. High school students accounted for the majority of fall 2021 enrollment at 31 community colleges.
Fewer people in the U.S. are going to college, but through early college programs and dual enrollment, many colleges are seeing a growing number of young people in their classrooms.
For first-year apprentice and recent high school graduate Maddox Brown, it was an opportunity to learn about HVAC through a high school dual-enrollment program that prompted him to pursue an apprenticeship in the field.
While more opportunity, more education and more support for underfunded institutions are good things, community colleges and other institutions must prepare for costs and other consequences.
The new Massachusetts governor is proposing a program called MassReconnect — modeled by Michigan and Tennessee — which will offer free community college to students older than 25 who do not have a college degree. The state Senate president, meanwhile, wants to make community college free for all students.
The program remains in limbo as the government prepares to defend its legality before the Supreme Court in February.
