In light of Lake County seniors being priced out of their homes because of ever increasing real estate taxes, LFC is on a mission to identify any and all areas that impact our property taxes.   One area that is growing at a rapid rate in the area of education is the “College Credit Plus Program”.   Here is what we have discovered about the program.

Ohio lawmakers originally enacted the Post Secondary Enrollment Option Program [PSEOP] in 1989 for 11th and 12th grade students; it was expanded in 1997 to include students in 9th and 10th grades. In 1999, additional legislation restricted eligibility to students carrying at least a 3.0 grade-point average in the subject they wish to pursue at the post-secondary level.   Public and nonpublic high school students may enroll in nonsectarian, college-level courses and receive college credit and/or credit toward graduation from high school.   It was replaced by the College Credit Plus program.  It is spelled out in quite some detail in the Ohio Revised Code.  Here are some pertinent sections of the code establishing the creation of the program, eligibility and funding of the program.  There is much more detail on-line for those interested in legalese.

Ohio Revised Code: 3365.02 College Credit Plus program; creation.

(A) There is hereby established the college credit plus program under which, beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, a secondary grade student who is a resident of this state may enroll at a college, on a full- or part-time basis, and complete nonsectarian, non-remedial courses for high school and college credit. The program shall govern arrangements in which a secondary grade student enrolls in a college and, upon successful completion of coursework taken under the program, receives transcripted credit from the college.

Ohio Revised Code: 3365.03 Enrollment in CCP; eligibility.

(A) A student enrolled in a public or nonpublic secondary school during the student’s ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade school year; a student enrolled in a non-chartered non-public secondary school in the student’s ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade school year; or a student who has been excused from the compulsory attendance law for the purpose of home instruction under section 3321.04 of the Revised Code and is the equivalent of a ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade student, may apply to and enroll in a college under the college credit plus program.

Ohio Revised Code: 3365.07 Funding and payment.

The department of education shall calculate and pay state funds to colleges for participants in the college credit plus program under division (B) of section 3365.06 of the Revised Code pursuant to this section. For a nonpublic secondary school participant, a nonchartered nonpublic secondary school participant, or a home-instructed participant, the department shall pay state funds pursuant to this section only if that participant is awarded funding according to rules adopted by the chancellor of higher education, in consultation with the superintendent of public instruction, pursuant to section 3365.071 of the Revised Code. The program shall be the sole mechanism by which state funds are paid to colleges for students to earn transcripted credit for college courses while enrolled in both a secondary school and a college, with the exception of state funds paid to colleges according to an agreement described in division (A)(1) of section 3365.02 of the Revised Code. [LFC added emphasis] [LFC comment: We will need to ask more questions, because this says state funds are to be used for this program, but, in reality, the respective school district is paying for the tuition and books directly to Lakeland Community College]

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We reached out to Lakeland Community College and asked them for the statistics regarding the number of full-time, part-time students, students enrolled in the CCP and the CCP costs paid by the local school district.  They promptly replied to us with the information, and we spent the time to put the details into a format that would, hopefully,  provide some meaningful information.

Here is the raw data that we received from the General Counsel of Lakeland Community College:  email from general counsel

ccp fy 2016        /       ccp fy 2017      /      ccp fy 2018

Let us see what the numbers are telling us about enrollment history of Lakeland Community College.  Here is a report detailing the disturbing trend of a ten year declining enrollment at Lakeland Community College. (You will have to rotate the page to read)

lcc full time & part time students

The Board of Trustees must be flummoxed trying to figure out what to do to stem the ~50% loss on full-time students.  In 2009, they had 7,495 full-time students, and in 2018 they reported only 3,767 students. That represents a decrease of 3,728 students (49.74% for those obsessed with accuracy).  The part-time students enrollment fared a little better with only a loss of 464 students (5%) [10,276 versus 9,812].

But wait, they have the answer….Eureka, the answer is obvious…..they will skirt the Ohio Revised Code and offer student housing to ensure that students are more engaged and will stay on to graduate.  And to cover the drop of 3,728 students they will build housing for 350 students?  That does not even cover 10% of the drop in full-time enrollment.  Someone at LCC has their feet planted firmly in the air.  Here is a link to a News-Herald article on the new proposed student housing.

https://www.news-herald.com/news/lakeland-community-college-to-offer-student-housing/article_d92cca60-fd82-11e8-ab79-730fef8f0ab2.html

But wait, it gets better when we consider students enrolling in the College Credit Plus Program.  Ah, the milk from this cash cow continues to flow……and our Lake County seniors “take it in the neck.”

Here is a report on the 10 year history of high school students enrolled in the CCP Program:   lcc ccp students

There has been an increase of 1,615 high school students from 2009 to 2018.  That is a huge increase of 137.56% [1,174 versus 2,789] during this period.  So why the increase? – very simple – it is all FREE!  Tuition and books are paid by the respective school district, and by extension the taxpayers through their property taxes.   The CCP students add another 20.5% of the student body ( 2,789 / 13,579)

We thought it would be interesting to see how much was paid by each school district and then total the amounts by County.

Here are the CCP Program Payments for FY 2016, FY 2017, FY 2018 and the combined totals for all three years:

ccp payments fy 2016      /       ccp payments fy 2017      /       ccp payments fy 2018     /    ccp payments fy 2016 – 2018

For the three years 2016 – 2018, Lakeland Community College received $3,545,955.47 from the College Credit Plus Program.  Lake County chipped in with $2,600,481.25 (73.3%) of the total.  Now remember that this money is paid to LCC by the respective school district.  If you care to see how much your school district paid all you need to is open up the links above.  Our school district, Riverside Local, paid $482,352.50 in those three years.

As a reminder, Lake County taxpayers have seen a tremendous increase in their property taxes that ends up in the coffers of Lakeland Community College.  In calendar year 2008, LCC received $10,474,423 in property tax revenue, and in calendar year 2018 it increased to $20,393,677!   That represents a property tax increase of $9,919,254 (94.70%).  Here is a report showing the increases in Lake County property taxes by taxing district:
lcc property tax increase by tax district

They not only get the taxes paid directly by taxpayers, they also get the tax revenue that we thought was going to our local schools.  Our complaints should be directed at the State legislators for passing this socialist program of redistribution of wealth without the taxpayers having a vote on it.  LCC is just abiding by the Ohio Revised Code.

So lets take a look at the rate charged by LCC for each credit hour.  There are four course categories and depending on whether you are on a semester or quarterly schedule the rates may vary.

1. Course Category “OC” – College courses delivered on the college campus                          Semester  $166.25     Quarter  $110.85
2. Course Category “OL” – College courses delivered on-line                                                    Semester  $166.28     Quarter  $110.85
3. Course Catergory “CI” – College course delivered at high-school with college professor      Semester  $83.14       Quarter  $55.43
4. Course Category  “HI” – College course delivered at high school with high school teacher   Semester  $41.57       Quarter   $27.71

One last report for you to review – Here is a summary of the Credit Hours Earned for each school and sorted by County.

ccp program credit hours earned

You will see that 72.2% of all credit hours were earned by high school students going to Lakeland’s campus, 11.1% earned credit for on-line courses, 13.7% through college courses at the high school with a high-school teacher and only 3.0% of the credits were earned at the high school with a college professor at the helm.

Thank you for reading this post.  We do the research and let the court of public opinion decide if we are being treated fairly by the various political sub-divisions and non-profits in Lake County.

Thanks to our Kirtland Lobbyist for this link to a recent News-Herald article on the CCP program.

https://www.news-herald.com/news/lake-county/high-school-students-take-advantage-of-ccp-program-at-lakeland/article_647bc44e-0c48-11e9-a2b2-8f715ff8aec1.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

(LFC Comment: We are highly skeptical about the accumulated savings to the taxpayers about this program.  It is simply a redistribution of wealth not a savings!)

Categories: Lakeland Community College

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