Two bills that would create taxpayer-funded scholarships for high school students who attend classes at community colleges were passed by the House on Wednesday.
Both will require future appropriations by the Legislature if signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves.
House Bill 884 is known as the Accelerate Mississippi Scholarship Program and was sponsored by state Rep. Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg. In addition to dual credit and dual enrollment courses, the new scholarship program — which would be managed by the Community College Board and the state Board of Education — would provide scholarships for vocational and technical students for classes that lead to an industry certification.
The state would pay $150 per credit hour for academic credits and $250 per credit hour for career technical classes. Any student that fails to pass a class paid for by the scholarship program must pay for a similar class and earn credit before they could be eligible to resume participation in the scholarship program.
It passed by a 114-5 margin and is now headed to the Senate.
HB 1394 is sponsored by state Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point and would create a scholarship program for dual credit students. The scholarship program would be managed by the Community College Board and there would be two scholarship funds.
The first one, for academic dual credit students, would be funded at $150 per credit hour or about $19.5 million annually (limited to 130,000 credit hours per year).
The second one is for vocation and technical students and would be funded at $250 per credit hour, with a limit of 20,000 semester hours (about $5 million annually).
The measure passed 113-6 and is now in the hands of the Senate.
The difference between the two enrollment types is dual credit students receive both high school and post-secondary credit for their coursework, while dual enrolled students receive only the latter.
Both bills would address the concerns of the state’s community colleges, which have said the growing program presented too heavy a financial burden on them.
Mississippi’s program run by the state Department of Education has dual enrollment, which is for students enrolled in either a community college or state institution of higher learning while also enrolled in high school, and dual credit students.
The courses eligible for dual credit include foreign languages, advanced math and science classes, performing arts, advanced business and technology courses and career/vocational technology courses.
