Educators, students and parents applauded and raised questions Thursday about Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposal to offer eligible high schoolers free tuition to spend their senior year at college, picking up their high school diplomas and a year of college credit at the same time.
The initiative, called Seniors to Sophomores, would enable seniors at Ohio public high schools to take classes at two- or four-year Ohio public colleges instead of their high schools. The seniors would have to meet the academic standards of the individual colleges.
Strickland introduced the proposal Wednesday during his State of the State speech. His goal is to challenge students, help students who want to accelerate their college education and save their families some money.
“What Ohio is doing is it is losing a lot of its potential capacity because huge numbers of poor students are not pursuing college work,” said Thomas Lasley, dean of the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Allied Professions.
Lasley said the proposal will likely increase the chances of success for all students, but particularly for low-income ones.
“Here’s the downside — paying for it,” he said. “How is the state going to and how are communities going to be able to manage the added costs of having those students complete college work?”
Strickland said the tuition will be paid by combining the student’s state subsidies from public school funding and the state subsidy for college.
