CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Officials at Del Mar College said that House Bill 8 is going to help fund their plan to pay the tuition costs for all students who want to be part of their dual-credit college program.
Currently, many school districts have been covering that tuition. Corpus Christi Independent School District students who weren’t on a free or reduced lunch program had to pay the tuition costs themselves.
Lenora Keas is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Del Mar College. She said that the board of regents approved the free tuition plan on Tuesday, and since then, she has been busy information school districts about it.
"We’ve made it easy for the school districts really to administer so all students will be free of tuition," Keas said.
CCISD Dual Credit Program Coordinator Bryan Davis said he believes that the cost savings to the district will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I would estimate around $400,000 a year it could be a little more it could be a little less," he said.
The dual credit courses are currently taught either in person or online at high schools or in person at Del Mar. Last year, the college served 2,500 students in an 11-county area from 41 schools.
"The nice thing about dual credit is that most of it is taught off-site at the high schools so we’re able to either send our faculty members to those schools or we credential the teachers there at the college level," Keas said.
Del Mar officials said that the free tuition plan is effective right now just in time for the fall semester.
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