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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW How you can conserve water at home ... Stouts fire burns 15,000 acres and counting ... 'Mitigation banking' ... How you can conserve water at home ... Stouts fire burns 15,000 acres and counting ... 'Mitigation banking' ... EDUCATION Bill takes aim at Oregon's 'fifth-year' high school programs Comment By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 9, 2015 at 6:06 PM Updated Mar 9, 2015 at 8:34 PM By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 9, 2015 at 6:06 PM Updated Mar 9, 2015 at 8:34 PM » Social News ALBANY — Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill to alter or eliminate fifth-year programs designed to help high school students be successful in college. About two dozen public schools statewide, including Logos Public Charter School in Medford, take advantage of some ambiguity in state law that allows students to delay graduating to attend one or even two years of college. Because the students remain with their high school district, the districts get state money that helps pay for the students' college costs, the Albany Democrat-Herald reports. This year, more than 1,100 Oregon high school students — a conservative estimate — will attend community college full-time for free under their districts’ advanced diploma or fifth-year programs, according to research by the Mail Tribune. Supporters say the program helps students prepare for and finish college, and they're especially helpful for students whose parents didn't go to college. But critics say they drain dollars meant for elementary and secondary schooling to college educations. A hearing on Senate Bill 322 is scheduled March 19 in Salem. School districts handle the programs differently. In Corvallis, for instance, students are required to create an academic plan and take both Math 111 and Writing 121, the courses most often failed in the Oregon University System. They also must make use of the tutoring center and do a quarterly check-in with an academic counselor. Advocates say that's aimed at helping first-generation college students make it through to college graduation, and it should be valuable if the state is to meet its ambitious college education goals. In her first year at Linn-Benton Community College, Karina Diaz-Lopez hopes to become a dental assistant and the first college graduate in her immediate family. Her parents grew up in Mexico and neither went to college. "Just knowing what classes I have to take for each term, how I should be planning those classes," she said. "My adviser has been very helpful." Sen. Mark Hass of Beaverton says advocates have their hearts in the right place, but the fifth-year programs drain funds intended for K-12 education. "Ask any parent who has a first-grader in a crowded classroom whether that parent thinks K-12 money should go to kids who have effectively graduated and are going to college," Hass said. Further, he said, fifth-year programs work now only because the school systems who have them are relatively small. "If Portland were to go this way, it would break the bank," he said. "It's not a sustainable solution." Portland, Salem and Eugene have their own struggles, but their sheer size affords them more student options and more community resources to tap, said Maria Delapoer, superintendent of Greater Albany Public Schools. "Equity doesn't mean everyone gets the same resources," she said. "Equity means districts or kids get what they need to be successful, and that's not the same for every kid and every district." In Sweet Home, where 70 students are enrolled in this year's fifth-year program, Superintendent Keith Winslow is blunt: "The people up north are crying that this isn't equitable. I guess my comment back would be, even before these programs, it wasn't equitable, either. And we took the short end of it, always." By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 9, 2015 at 6:06 PM Updated Mar 9, 2015 at 8:34 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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