(This is the fourth in a series of articles about college in Kansas.)
LIBERAL ? Hefty college debt won?t saddle Bryan Medina.
He?s on a fast track to an energy career that he hopes will pave the road to family dreams: Buying his own cattle and going in on the purchase of 300 acres of land with his dad.
?We could grow and eventually own our own feedyard,? said Medina, who finished high school last May in the small southwest Kansas town of Sublette. ?If things go great, if we put all the work into it, we?ll definitely get there.?
Medina had just one semester left of his natural gas studies at Seward County Community College in Liberal. Kansas footed much of the bill for him, meaning Medina can start banking paychecks faster toward those livestock purchases instead of pouring them into college loans.
?I left Wyoming Tech owing $17,000,? said David Ratzlaff, one of Medina?s instructors. ?It took me about 10 years to pay that off.?
Savvy teens eyeing tech careers can get a leg up in life under a Kansas program that made college free for them while still in high school. Stories like Medina?s have generated buzz, and now some education officials and lawmakers are mulling how to help students shooting for non-technical careers, too.
Their idea? Let high school students who qualify academically take up to five popular college basics tuition-free, including algebra and English composition.
Cost and logistics could prove hurdles. The potential expenses of such a program remain unclear, as does legislative support amid the state?s gradual recovery from years of fiscal trouble.
New research on the dual credit boom in Texas also raises questions about how much money it really saves families. And it suggests dual credit mostly helps white students and those with more money, instead of the low-income and minority students policymakers want to put on a level playing field.
But if Kansas can smooth out the wrinkles, high school students see a way to build competitive college applications and get ahead, all while easing into more rigorous coursework. Many already enroll in dual credit at their own expense.
?It?s not as intimidating? starting college this way, said Nevaeh Bess, a Liberal High senior earning such credits at her own, familiar school. Her teachers explain class assignments and expectations clearly.
?That helps out a lot ? knowing what your teacher is grading,? the aspiring anesthesiologist said. ?I spoke to someone that is in college now, and she was like, ?Well, sometimes I just don?t know what they?re looking for.??
