MONTGOMERY — State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) filed legislation on Tuesday to allow high school juniors and seniors to enroll full-time in college.
The Move on When Ready Act passed the Senate Education Budget Committee on Wednesday morning. Orr said the legislation would likely be amended on the Senate floor.
Under existing law, a high school student may dual enroll in college courses in certain circumstances.
The bill would create the Move on When Ready Act and establish a program allowing eligible 11th and 12th-grade students admitted unconditionally to an eligible two-year public institution of higher education to take a full schedule of courses at that institution and receive high school credit for the post-secondary coursework.
This bill would create the Move on When Ready Fund and authorize the Chancellor of the Alabama Community College System to use the fund to pay a two-year institution of higher education for courses taken in the program and would provide for the calculation of that funding. This bill would prohibit a two-year institution of higher education from charging a student for post-secondary coursework taken in the program.
Orr said the legislation was based on a similar law in Georgia.
“The concept is this: if a child is in school, 11th or 12th grade, and they are ready to go ahead and get out of high school, they’re ready to leave and move on…and go ahead and proceed to college. This would be the vehicle through which they do it,” Orr said. “They would proceed on to junior college. Their credits would revert back to give them credit in high school for math or whatever they need back in high school similar to dual enrollment. When they graduate, if they go in the 11th grade and they do enough credits and do two years in the junior college they should have enough credits to graduate from high school and junior college at the same time. If they leave in the senior year, they wouldn’t have enough to graduate from junior college but they could graduate from high school. The premise is: get on with your life. Why do we make children, if they’re ready to move and they’ve got the academic capability to move on and go to a higher level, why do we say, ‘You’ve got to stay, you’ve got to sit in that seat until you’re a high school graduate?’ They can do the dual enrollment track which is kind of part way. Well, this is all the way.”
The bill still has to pass the Senate and House before being signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey. It’s possible the bill will be changed to allow four-year colleges to participate in the program and not just community colleges.
“I’ve heard from some of the ‘higher-ed friends’ (saying), ‘Whoa, whoa we want some of those freshmen and sophomores too,” Orr said.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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