102 MCPS Students Dropped Their College Classes After MCPS Stopped Paying. Officials Don’t Know Why.

MCPS told 289 high school students this summer that it would no longer pay their Montgomery College tuition, and 102 of them dropped their college classes, according to a County Council staff memo discussed at a committee session Monday. MCPS officials told the committee they do not know why the students left.

The 289 students had planned to take dual enrollment courses but were told they did not meet the state’s college and career readiness standard, so they would have to pay themselves or apply for a Montgomery College grant, the memo says (page 8). MCPS eliminated a planned increase in dual enrollment tuition funding when it balanced its fiscal 2027 budget.

What happened to the 289 students

• 102 dropped their college courses.
• 100 stayed enrolled, covered by a Montgomery College high school grant or paying themselves.
• 31 met the readiness standard over the summer, so MCPS is paying for their courses.
• 56 students in Clarksburg High School’s P-TECH program had their college courses moved to 11th grade.

MCPS is paying Montgomery College tuition for 2,234 students who meet the readiness standard, as of Aug. 25, according to the memo. That standard comes from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s education reform law.

“Unfortunately we don’t”

Council Member Will Jawando, who chairs the Education and Culture Committee, asked whether the 102 students left primarily because of cost. “Unfortunately we don’t” know, an MCPS official answered, adding that “we may have to dig in.” Officials said several factors could be involved, including that the state standard applies only from 11th grade, and that they did not have data on the 102 students with them.

An MCPS official said the state requires MCPS to pay only for students who meet the readiness standard, and that the Board of Education “has advocated for the state to acknowledge more of a flexible pay sliding scale.” That “hasn’t come to pass yet,” the official said.

Council Member Kristin Mink compared dual enrollment to prekindergarten: programs outside MCPS’s core kindergarten-through-12th-grade mandate that she called vital but hard to fund. “Where is the money coming from to make it happen?” she said, adding that the problem needs to be solved “in state law somewhere.” Mink asked MCPS for a breakdown of the students by demographics and school, compared with past years.

Bethesda Magazine reported in July that MCPS had sent letters to the 289 families. Moderately MOCO’s story on the broader MCPS budget cuts covers the rest of Monday’s session.

The full session is on the Council’s YouTube channel; the dual enrollment discussion begins about 40 minutes in.

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