Tennessee House advances proposal to help keep dual enrolled high school students on track

Representative Ed Butler, R-Rickman, is proposing a change to help keep high schoolers enrolled in technical college courses on track after they graduate.Butler presented a bill to the House Higher Education Subcommittee Monday afternoon that would give students taking dual enrollment in high school priority if there’s a waitlist for slots at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) they want to attend after graduation.Representative Butler told the subcommittee that he got the idea for this bill from his daughter.“She had started her cosmetology education, dual enrolled as a high school student and wanted to continue that on. And sometimes, I think, as a state we overlook some of these types of things. This bill simply just corrects that. It doesn’t kick anybody out that is already in their program, it just places the dual enrolled student at the top of the waiting list,” said Butler.Representative Mark White, R-Memphis, expressed support for the legislation but worried about the impact on adult student populations that are on a TCAT waitlist.“Since we are at a stage where we’re having to retool so many of our adult population through our trade schools, making them get back into the workforce, that reserving this spot would it hurt them,” asked White.Butler says the change could push some adult students down the priority list, but he believes it’s needed to keep high school students on track. Under the proposal, students will also need to be enrolled in their chosen program by January of their senior year to keep that priority seat.“We have already invested our state resources, and our time and our effort and our energy in these dual enrolled high school students. And the problem is we have a dual enrolled high school student that gets three or four hundred hours and then goes to the summer and something changes, their life changes, they go in a different direction, and they never come back and finish that certification. So, that’s what I’m trying to do is correct this gap,” said Butler. “I don’t think it should be a free-for-all for the student. They’ve got to meet a deadline so that that seat could be filled with somebody else if they choose not to take it.”Subcommittee members passed the bill on a voice vote.  It now heads to the House Education Administration committee.