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State Nixes Plan to Pay Tuition for Dps Students ; District Says 100 Headed to College As Promised

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

State officials said Tuesday that a new program called College Now is illegal and vowed not to pay college costs for 100 Denver high school students set to start the classes in less than a month.

"This would be a wonderful program for everyone," said Colorado Education Commissioner William Moloney, "but you've got to have a law authorizing that."

Denver Public Schools leaders said the Abraham Lincoln High School students will go to Community College of Denver as planned when classes begin Aug. 22.

"We will find a way to fund this program, whether it's through the state legislature or elsewhere," DPS spokeswoman Tanya Caughey said. "The bottom line for the students is the program will continue, and we will find a way to make it work."

But it's unclear for how long, Caughey said.

Lincoln Principal Scott Mendelsberg has pushed the program as a way to keep students attending the high-poverty, heavily Hispanic high school in southwest Denver.

He has said it gives hope to students who typically could not afford to attend college any other way.

Under College Now, students pursue the new Achieving Personal Excellence, or APEX, diploma, which they receive after fulfilling their high school graduation requirements plus the demands of a two- year college degree.

Because the students technically have not graduated high school while finishing their college classes, DPS officials argued the district should still receive state per-pupil funding for them. DPS would then use the money to pay Community College of Denver.

"They've known about this for months," Mendelsberg said of state officials. "Why didn't they tell us in June? Why would they wait?"

His students, he said, are ready to start college. He doesn't plan to tell them anything has changed.

"As far as the kids go, they're registered; they have their classes already set up to go," Mendelsberg said.

DPS school board members changed their graduation requirements in May to include the APEX diploma, an alternation made for College Now.

Moloney said then he would seek a legal opinion from Colorado Attorney General John Suthers on the plan.

On Tuesday, the commissioner said he had received an "informal ruling" from the attorney general's office on the issue.

But Moloney declined to release the ruling, citing attorney- client privilege. He said it found the program violates state law essentially because state funding for K-12 schools is not intended to pay for college degrees.

"School districts have full authority to proceed as they wish on this, to combine the diploma and going to college, but that will be at their expense," he said.

"I have a sense they have a contingency plan," he added. "I do not suspect they're going to say, 'Oh gee, what a misfortune . . .'

Moloney said the state Board of Education decided not to seek a formal ruling from Suthers, though Suthers' communications director, Kristen Hubble, said one was being prepared.

State board member Rico Munn, who represents Denver, said the issue isn't closed.

He said board members in September will address College Now and a similar plan in Sheridan, the 21st Scholars Program, which has operated since 1998.

"We need to discuss whether we want to change our rules," Munn said. "It's my understanding that we have the authority to draft certain regulations and to change our regulations subject to review by . . . the legislature."

It's unclear if Sheridan's plan also is in violation, he said. Sheridan and Lincoln officials have said they worked together to craft College Now.

Sheridan Superintendent Mike Poore could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

New DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet said he wants to talk with Colorado Department of Education staff about the college proposal.

"The program has shown success in keeping students in school and actually having them believe that college really is an option for them," he said. "I think we need to find ways of having more of our students believe that, not less."

Source: Rocky Mountain News

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