Southern Arizona school districts will need to decide how to cover the cost of dual enrollment classes after Pima Community College approved new tuition for high school students.
The Pima Community College governing board voted June 10 to establish a dual enrollment tuition rate of $10 per credit hour beginning in the 2027-28 academic year.
"This recommendation is designed to partially offset the college’s direct costs of delivering high quality dual enrollment programs while preserving broad student access and maintaining PCC’s commitment to educational attainment, workforce development, and economic opportunity throughout Pima County," presented to the board says.
About 6,700 students enroll in PCC dual enrollment courses each year, according to the proposal. The classes allow high school students to earn both high school and college credit at the same time.
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Historically, Arizona funded dual enrollment students through the community college operating aid formula at nearly the same rate as traditional college students, with funding approaching $1,000 per full-time student equivalent.
That funding has steadily declined over the past two decades. In 2009, state support for dual enrollment students was cut to 50% of the amount provided for traditional enrollment. Between 2008 and 2016, state operating aid for PCC, including funding for dual enrollment, was phased out entirely.
"We're in a place with the college now where we're approaching nearly two decades with no state investment in our maintenance and operations," Greg Taylor, PCC's governing board president, told the Star Thursday. "We've just gone through a year where we've lost millions in federal funding because of changes at the federal Department of Education, and so we're just not at a place where we can continue to sustain absorbing these costs without any sort of revenue coming in to help to offset it."
According to the proposal, PCC invests about $1.7 million each year in the infrastructure needed to operate and support its dual enrollment program.
Under the newly approved tuition structure, a standard three-credit dual enrollment class will cost $30, generating an estimated $372,000 in annual revenue. By comparison, dual enrollment tuition at Maricopa Community Colleges, Arizona's largest dual enrollment provider serving 25,000 to 28,000 students each year, is typically $97 per credit hour, or $291 for a three-credit course.
"This recommendation is intentionally modest," Pima College Chancellor Jeffrey Nasse said to the governing board last week. He said the college considered multiple tuition models, but after weighing school district feedback and access concerns, the $10 per credit hour model worked the best.
Moving forward
Over the next year, Pima College will continue working with local districts on how to implement the fees in dual enrollment programs.
"One of the things that hasn't been worked out is who's paying it," Taylor, the Governing Board president, told the Star. "There's no guarantee that each individual student will pay it. We're going to work with each district."
PCC Chancellor Nesse told the Star Thursday that whatever decision is made, he wants it to be across the board.
"We would like to be consistent," Nesse said. "I wouldn't want one system for Sahuarita and another for Marana or TUSD, right? We're not dealing with one large school district, we're dealing with multiple school districts, so that is part of the challenge."
Matt Munger, Amphitheater Public Schools' associate superintendent for secondary education, said he's grateful for the full year to figure out how to integrate the cost.
Once the fee is implemented, he said he'd like to see an assessment of how it affects student enrollment in classes.
"As a school district, we'll want to get information back from our students, because that was one of the big pieces that superintendents in Pima County schools were very concerned about," Munger said. "I would want to collect data to find out if in fact it did deter students from taking the class."
Munger said the district will look for community programs to help students cover the costs if needed.
Nesse said Pima College will also look at different options for offering scholarships and fee waivers.
