This fall semester will hold big changes for the JumpStart program, including opening the enrollment to high school juniors, reduced tuition rates, and transportation.
Gary Turner with the Kenai Peninsula College detailed a couple of changes.
Turner: ” Starting in the fall semester this coming August high school juniors will be able to participate in the program called JumpStart which allows them to take a college credit for $55 per credit versus the regular University of Alaska rate of $174 per credit. So with the declining number of high school seniors in the school district we’ve looked at those numbers, we’ve looked at the budget, and believe we can do this without any increase to the budget and so we’re moving forward.”
In the joint effort by the college and Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to make it easier for high school students to start taking college classes, Pegge Erkeneff said the school district has added transportation from central peninsula high schools to the campus.
Erkeneff: “The transportation piece is really exciting for us, we’re going to be having buses that will be like a shuttle bus that will go from our high schools over to the Kenai River Campus and then in the Homer area over to the Homer campus and have an opportunity for students to have transportation so that they can take these classes with JumpStart.”
We asked if by adding transportation to the program it would affect the already strained district budget.
Erkeneff: “Not at all, in fact in our transportation contract, our buses and our drivers are contracted for the day so this is going to be an addition that we are excited to add this year that doesn’t impact our budget. The savings on tuition is huge, and it’s not just if the student goes in Alaska but anywhere in the country at an accredited university or college with the tuition rates. But more than that one of the things that we’re looking at, and it’s a trend in secondary education, is the idea of an early college initiative. One of the key performance indicators is that the first time you go to college, if the student is successful that’s a key indicator that they will potentially complete their college degree.”
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