Idaho’s governor signed a bill allowing high school students to graduate with up to two years of college credits. House Bill 426 sponsor Rep. Steve Thayn (R-Emmett) said his daughter inspired the measure. She will graduate early with college credit through an existing program few students knew about because school counselors did not publicize it.
“My youngest daughter has been my guinea pig,” Thayn said. “I realized through her experience this is something everybody could do.”
The “Eight in Six” program will allow students in seventh through twelfth grade to move more quickly through their coursework by taking extra classes online over the summer and during the school year so they can dual-enroll in college classes in their junior and senior years of high school and head to college with it already half-completed.
Funding is already allocated through the state-sponsored Idaho Digital Learning Academy. In the first three years, program enrollment is limited to 10 percent of students in the state.
“It extends the school year without the expense of running buses and whatever else,” Thayn noted.
Learn more:
Rep. Thayn talks about the early graduation program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NW1cioc_Go
Image by Michael B.
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
