Home-schooled and private high school students taking classes at AACC started paying 25% more tuition than last year this summer.
Traditionally, all dual-enrolled high school students received a 50% tuition discount. A 2021 law required Anne Arundel County Public Schools to use state funds to pay 75% of their students’ AACC tuition, while the college discounts the other 25%. This means public school students can now take college classes for free.
However, home-schooled and private school students pay their own AACC tuition, which the college discounted by 50% until this summer, when it cut the price break to 25%.
“The law is explicit about waivers and discounts that we are permitted to give by statute, so we don’t have discretion there,” Melissa Beardmore, the vice president for learning resources management, said.
Abigail Pendry, a home-schooled second-year game development student, said she doesn’t mind the tuition increase.
“I understand where it’s coming from,” Pendry said.
Avery Gunn, a home-schooled student who started taking college classes last year, said the change could make attending AACC more challenging for home-schoolers.
“Home-schooling in general is more expensive than going to public schools, which are obviously free, and when you choose to home-school, you end up paying a lot more for all of your education,” Gunn said. “It feels like home-schooled students are always faced with a little bit more expenses than anybody that went to the traditional school systems.”
Beardmore said the goal of the state law, called the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, was to offer more access to high school students who want to take college classes, not to increase tuition for home-schooled and private school students.
“I think for students who qualify, it provides greater access, obviously, to higher education,” Beardmore said. “That was the goal of the legislation. … We didn’t set the law; the Maryland General Assembly did, and we need to comply with it.”