Dual Credit Bill Doesn’t Assign Up Dollars For Teacher Tuition

Dual credit teachers without a master\’s degree in their content area need to get additional schooling by 2017. (photo credit: MyTudut/flickr)

The bill aimed at helping dual credit teachers pay for additional courses heads to Governor Mike Pence, but does not create any concrete programs to give teachers tuition assistance.

House Bill 1370 aimed to help dual credit teachers pay for additional courses or degrees required as part of a new state mandate.

An example of a dual credit class would be a high school senior taking AP English, while also receiving English 101 credit through an Indiana university.

The state’s federal accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, enacted new rules this year that say teachers instructing classes where students receive both college and high school credit must have either a master’s degree or 18 credit hours in the content area they teach.

This change will force many of these teachers back to school, because many have a master’s degree in Education, if they have one.

It’s estimated more than 70 percent of dual credit teachers don’t meet these requirements and will be forced back to school or won’t be able to teach these classes.

While HB 1370 aimed to help address the financial burden on these teachers, it never allocated funds to tuition assistance. The bill sent to the governor calls for the Commission for Higher Education to study ways that higher education institutions can give teachers a break or waiver on tuition.

It doesn’t create any sort of program or mandate universities to waive tuition. Any sort of action will come from the study by the Commission for Higher Education.