Texas Budget Should Fund Advanced Placement Program

Tuesday, February 22, 2011, the Austin American-Statesman editorials ended their silence about the effects that proposed Texas budget cuts would have on education and its programs with an editorial entitled “Spare Advanced Placement.” The Advanced Placement (AP) Program is not included in the budget of neither the House nor the Senate. Its price tag is $14.2 million. The AP program was established to offer high school students to undertake a college level curriculum in core subjects: English, history, mathematics, and thirty other subjects. At the end of the school year, students take the standardized AP Test to earn college credit. Presently, the Texas AP Program subsidizes a third of the $87 test fee for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch program and pays for AP teacher training. The program saves money although Texas ranks No. 20 in passing AP rates.
The author believes that this is one program that will more pay for itself by saving tuition and textbook purchases and by getting more students to graduate within four years. To prove his point, he interviewed Mary Knight, University of Texas budget director, who said that freshmen who come in with 12 to 24 college credit through Advanced Placement are already at least a semester ahead. AP gives students the chance to better their performance for college.
After reading the editorial, I wondered what students did pay for an AP exam because I thought two-thirds of $87 which is $58 was still too high for a student whose family has limited resources. On AISD’s website, I found a link to Bowie High School. Students pay $13, and students who qualify for free or reduced lunch pay $8. I do not know if this is true for all the AISD high schools. I do believe AP classes offer minority or economically disadvantaged students the opportunity and challenge in their high school to rise in their academic performance. If students came to Austin Community College with 12 to 24 hours of AP credit, they would save $504 to $1008 in tuition. An associate’s degree requiring 66 hours at $42 an hour would cost $2772 in tuition. This would bring the tuition cost of an associate’s degree down to the range of $1764 to $2268 which is a saving of 17% to 36% in tuition. Also there is the saving in the textbooks not bought for these courses.
The references “while a butcher cuts with a meat ax” and “cutting in the dark” demonstrate that the author is very concerned that the House and the Senate are not looking closely at the programs being cut and the possible ramifications. In reading the editorial, I do not detect a personal bias unless the author is someone who got college credit through the AP exams. However, he does use verifiable facts to support his viewpoint and to win my support.