New Mexico questions spending on college courses for kids

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico officials are reconsidering whether increasingly popular college-level classes taken by high school students warrant growing public subsidies. A progress report published Thursday by the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Committee shows that students who pursue dual-credit coursework that can count toward high school and college degrees tend to have higher academic aptitudes based on standardized testing. The findings come as several states call into questions whether dual credit programs exposing students who need it the most to the rigors of collegiate studies so that they can avoid remedial college coursework graduate in reasonable time. In New Mexico, total state spending on dual credit education has increased 60 percent since 2012 to $54 million, as classes shift to college faculty and campuses without a reduction in high school funding.