A high school program that allows students to earn transfer credits for Pima Community College has had the number of credits that could be earned cut in half.
Students in the fire-services program run by Pima County's Joint Technical Education District used to be able to earn up to 21.5 community college credits for free before they graduated from high school, but that has been reduced to 10.
Even though Pima was grant-ing the 21.5 credits for free, the reduction has nothing to do with making more money, said Rachelle Howell, a Pima College spokeswoman.
Rather, it is standard procedure in which dual-enrollment programs have to be reviewed to ensure that academic credits align with what is being taught at Pima, Howell said.
Howell said JTED's fire-service program is the only one this school year to see a drastic reduction in credits that can be obtained for free.
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"Students will not be able to get as many credits as were offered last year," said Greg D'Anna, a spokesman for JTED. "It's a tough thing, but it is the process, and we want to make certain that students going through JTED courses excel equally as if they were actually at Pima Community College - that the rigor is the same, so we're fine with this."
Kathy Prather, career and technical education director for the Tucson Unified School District, said she has not seen any reductions to TUSD's programs, although she has been notified that some are up for review.
A number of other school districts have dual-enrollment agreements with PCC. As contracts for programs expire, each will be reviewed similarly, Howell said.
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Contact reporter Alexis Huicochea at ahuicochea@azstarnet.com or 573-4175.
