LANSING – Community colleges and Democratic lawmakers say they hope to secure $20 to $30 million to allow public high school students to enroll in college classes at no cost to local school districts.

Since 1996, students and their families have not been required to pay most fees associated with dual enrollment programs.

Such programs let high school students take classes at nearby colleges – earning credits that usually can be transferred to the institution they attend after graduation.

Rather, school districts bear the cost of tuition and mandatory course fees – although students and families still are responsible for transportation and parking costs.

That financial structure – which requires districts to use part of their per-student state aid allotment to pay college tuition costs – discourages districts from promoting dual enrollment opportunities, said Brandy Johnson, the president of the Michigan Community College Association.

“Dual enrollment can seem like a money-loser,” Johnson said. “You don’t have a huge incentive to scream from the rooftops that dual enrollment is a great opportunity.”

The financial and administrative burden those programs can place on school districts is a reason why Michigan’s dual enrollment rate lags far behind the national average, Johnson said.

In 2023, high school students made up one-fifth of public community college enrollments nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

However, high school students make up only 14.8% of enrollees at Michigan’s public community colleges.

That is the lowest among neighboring states; Indiana’s 51.7% rate dwarfs Michigan’s.

However, advocates for increased dual enrollment participation say they see promise in a pilot program at Schoolcraft College in Livonia.

For about a year, state and federal funds have been used to pay all tuition and fees for students from six districts who take classes at Schoolcraft.

Since then, the number of high school students taking classes at the college has increased 60% to 70%, Schoolcraft College President Glenn Cerny said.

What had already been a good deal for students – allowing them to earn college credits or receive technical training at little personal expense – became a similarly attractive deal for districts, Cerny said.

“They love it,” Cerny said about the six districts’ reaction to the program. “They will promote it now because it doesn’t come out of their budget and it’s not one more thing they have to deal with.”

As a result, more students can advance their education, earn valuable skills and “shop the wares” to learn what they want to pursue, Cerny said.

However, the $1.2 million for the program – which was secured by Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia – is nearly depleted.

The question now, Cerny said, is whether the pilot program’s success can be translated and scaled up to work across the state’s 31 public and tribal two-year colleges.

“The answer is ‘yes, absolutely we can do that,'” he said.

Schoolcraft plans to report the program’s results to lawmakers during the Michigan Community College Association’s Capitol Day on April 17 to persuade them to fund dual enrollment programs across the state, Cerny said.

That money, he said, shouldn’t be too difficult to afford since, in a proposed state budget of $83.5 billion, “you can find $20 or $30 million rolling around somewhere.”