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The House has voted 61-7 in favor of HB 493, legislation from Reps. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, and Branden Durst, D-Boise, to set up a pilot project in which school students could challenge classes by passing end-of-course tests, and those who graduate a year or more early as a result would be eligible for special scholarships. “What this does is it incentivizes learning,” Thayn told the House. “It’s not going to require any extra funds, because the state spends about $4,500 a year per student, and these funds would simply come from that money that we would have allocated.” Some lawmakers who are retired teachers raised concerns about the move. Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, said his experience is that an end-of-course exam isn’t that thorough. “There are things it doesn’t measure,” he said. Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said, “I think we are encouraging too much of a surface understanding rather than an in-depth understanding.”
Backers, though, said the bill would encourage more Idaho students to go to college, an area in which Idaho has lagged far behind most states. “Those are the innovators, those are the leaders of our state and we need to encourage them to continue to move through the system,” Durst said. The bill now moves to the Senate.
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fortboise on February 22 at 4:41 p.m.
Sayler and Ringo have an excellent point. I made my way through accelerated coursework in high school, and college, without any particular financial incentive. In high school, the A.P. credits were just icing on the cake of what was my favorite subject anyway, and at the U of I, a couple correspondence courses allowed me to finish an engineering degree a little quicker.
In the latter case, while I had no problem fulfilling the course requirements with less burden on the state’s institution, I know I didn’t learn the subject matter as well as I would have liked to.
I have no doubt some high school students and their families will jump at a financial incentive to speed their way through; I have considerable doubt that it’ll happen with no cost to the quality of the education.
Arpie on February 22 at 6:55 p.m.
No extra funds for the state, but what about the school districts who will need to administer and grade a whole bunch of extra tests? Some, many, most?- of those taking the tests will not pass. Extra work for naught. Sounds like an unfunded mandate to me.