The sky is blue. The earth is round. College is expensive. Is that a surprise? No, just a sad, inescapable reality. Every second of time we spend on Earth draws us closer to the fiery, burning death of the universe. What else is new?

Oh yeah, dual credit.

Back in 2017, RJUHSD approved a $5000 stipend for teachers to get Masters degrees in order to introduce a greater variety of opportunities to earn college credit for students through dual enrollment. Now, the results of that are finally panning out with the promise of dual enrollment classes coming up next school year. 

Something about the idea of free college credit makes me giddy. It’s probably the part where students who take associated dual enrollment classes don’t have to grudgingly get their wallets out to get results.

After all, prior to dual enrollment, the only way to get college credit was through taking AP courses, for which each life-sustaining, college-credit-giving exams costs money. $97.00, to be exact. Then there’s the unspoken sanity tax which all AP students can testify for having experienced.

For the longest time, dual enrollment seemed to be reserved for Crockett’s Comp Sci students, by virtue of coincidence (and his master’s degree). The push for dual enrollment classes means there will finally be an opportunity for the rest of us to catch up. 

And sure, dual enrollment is a system that incentivizes college learning and sneakily puts students on the greater education pathway, but it’s upfront about what it wants students to achieve. For dual enrollment, those added two words will be a draw for students more so than an added benefit.

Best of all, the classes don’t require anything in return. College Board offering measly $30-something dollar fee waivers for their exams doesn’t compare when the alternative is the kind of free you’d only see once in a lifetime in the last five minutes of a failed garage sale.

This the kind of opportunity students, especially low income students who may fear being unable to afford an AP test even with a waiver, were waiting for. Easy access to college credits, right in our own backyard — overrun with APs though it may be. 

There’s no travel involved and no hidden fees. It’s the most upfront anyone is going to get about pushing students into getting into a higher education pathway.

 Now if we can just get these dual enrollment courses to count for UC credit, I’d be even happier.