The Economic Benefit from Tuition Savings for Dual Enrollment Students in Georgia

Abstract

ABSTRACT According to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC), the number of high school students enrolled at Georgia institutions of higher education has increased by 88% over the past 4 years and spending on dual enrollment programs has more than doubled during that period. As enrollment continues to increase, the Governor has enacted legislation to limit the number of dual enrollment hours a high school student can earn to a total of 30. Given this new change and the increased participation in dual enrollment programs, we examine the savings students achieve through dual enrollment programs at a four-year public institution that is part of the University System of Georgia. We estimate that, on average, dual enrollment students save $4,122 in tuition costs, which translates to nearly $8 million in savings across all 1,931 students in our sample. If those individuals had financed these credit hours via a conventional Stafford loan, the average savings across all students balloons to more than $12 million. Additionally, we find that the average cost of a dual enrolled student to GSFC is $2,828.72, which indicates the possibility of a net benefit to the state of Georgia due to dual enrollment programs since household savings exceeds the cost of the programs to GSFC.