After Texas House Bill 8 created funding changes for community colleges, the Tarrant County College’s Board of Trustees waived tuition for all Fall 2023 dual credit students at its Aug. 8 meeting.
“I think they wanted to go above and beyond that, and they saw that as an opportunity to expand that for everyone,” Ms. Jennifer Castrillo, Mansfield ISD’s Post Secondary Readiness Coordinator, said. “Not every community college did that, so I think they value our partnership and wanted to extend that opportunity to all students instead of just that targeted population that might meet those specific eligibility requirements.”
House Bill 8 replaced a former 50-year-old funding model that based community college funding on the number of hours and types of courses students took. Now community colleges receive state money based on the number of degrees and certificates they award. The bill also includes a Financial Aid for Swift Transfer (FAST) program that allows students to enroll at no cost to the student.
“It levels the playing field for anyone that cost was a factor, where maybe they really wanted to participate, and maybe they didn’t meet the specific requirements to get the reduced tuition that we already offered, but it was just a little bit too much out of the budget,” Ms. Castrillo said. “This gives everyone an equal opportunity to participate in the program when cost is no longer a factor.”
A student can enroll in a TCC class and receive up to six credit hours annually per course. In MISD, 958 students enrolled in dual credit classes in the fall of the 2021-2022 school year and about 965 MISD students enrolled in dual credit classes in the fall of the 2022-2023 school year. Mansfield ISD currently offers 27 dual credit courses, with English Composition and US History as the most popular. Lead Counselor Dana Vorsino and other counselors on campus started working before the school year began to create schedules for students, check rosters, and register every potential dual credit student.
“I think it definitely is a way for students to get some of those basic classes that everyone has to take in college kind of out of the way. It can help you know if you’re trying to graduate college early and maybe get a master’s degree. It helps you not have to spend that long getting your bachelor’s,” Ms. Vorsino said. “I think it also helps say with cost because you can take these courses for cheaper in high school than you could at an actual University.”
Enrolling in a dual credit class last year cost students $115 per class, after the district paid $77, or $25 for students with free or reduced lunch. In addition to a portion of the tuition, MISD also paid for students’ textbooks and will continue to do so. The district have a three-year agreement for textbooks for each subject as well as items that need to be replaced yearly, so costs vary from year to year. With the new funding model, Mansfield ISD can reallocate funds previously used to offset student tuition.
“It is kind of nice that everything doesn’t really renew all at once, it used to, but now it’s a little spread out,” Ms. Castrillo said. “We have always wanted to keep the costs as minimal to students as possible, and so that was something we felt like as a district we could do.”
