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Public Policy in Action: Performance Funding and Increasing Dual Credit Enrollments in Texas

ByBlake Decker

For a moment, let’s take a stroll down memory lane in Texas higher education. Traveling back 25 years, we stop in the fall semester of 2000 to see that total enrollment at Texas public colleges and universities was just over 862,000. Of those fall 2000 enrollees, 17,784 (2% of total enrollment) were dual credit students, who are defined as high school students taking college-level courses prior to completing high school. Fast forward to fall 2024 and total enrollment across Texas public colleges and universities was over 1.42 million, a 65% increase from fall 2000. Also in fall 2024, there were 249,328 dual credit students (18% of total enrollment) taking classes at Texas public colleges and universities, which represented a 1,302% increase from fall 2000. While the 25-year window is certainly a lengthy runway for comparisons, the significant increase in dual credit enrollment in Texas highlights the importance of dual credit students in any conversation of higher education enrollment in Texas. The remainder of this blog post narrows the focus to more recent trends in dual credit enrollment, especially in light of the current performance funding model for community colleges that was enacted during the 2023 Texas Legislative session.

Rise in dual credit enrollment has accelerated in past five years

Prior to the onset of the pandemic in 2020, dual credit enrollment in Texas had experienced healthy growth, peaking at over 202,000 dual credit students enrolled in fall 2019. However, the statewide total fell to under 184,000 in fall 2020, which serves as the baseline in the “Overall Trends” chart below.

  • Historically speaking, public community colleges in Texas have enrolled 9 out of every 10 dual credit students in any fall semester. During the five-year window in the chart below, that percentage ranged from 92.2% in fall 2020 to 89.7% in fall 2024.
  • Overall, total dual credit enrollment grew by 36% in five years from 183,726 in fall 2020 to 249,328 in fall 2024.
  • Public community colleges in Texas experienced an increase of more than 54,000 dual credit students from 2020 to 2024, an increase of almost 32%. For our conversation about performance funding, the 24,901 headcount increase for community colleges from fall 2023 to fall 2024 is an important data point, as this represented a 12.5% one-year increase in dual credit enrollment at public community colleges.
  • The combination of Texas State Technical Colleges (TSTCs) and Lamar State Colleges (Lamars) saw an increase of 166% in dual credit enrollment in the past five years, moving from 3,645 in fall 2020 to 9,693 in fall 2024.
  • Dual credit enrollment at public universities grew by 50% from 10,720 enrolled in 2020 to 16,076 in 2024.

NOTE: On the data tabs above, use the drop-down menus to filter the view for each community college/district (Community College Data) or state university system (University Data).

  • The Lone Star College System collectively enrolled more than 25,000 dual credit students in fall 2024 and experienced an increase of 54% from just over 16,000 in fall 2020. Approximately 10% of all dual credit students at Texas public institutions in fall 2024 were enrolled in the Lone Star College System.
  • The Dallas College District had the highest numeric increase from 2020 to 2024 in dual credit enrollment with 11,000 additional dual credit students enrolled in 2024 (22,391) when compared to fall 2020 (11,126), representing a 101% increase.
  • Laredo Community College had the highest percentage increase of 11,720% from fall 2020 to fall 2024, increasing from 44 dual credit students five years ago to 5,201 students in 2024. Lamar State Colleges had the second-highest percentage increase of 227%, growing from 1,653 in 2020 to 5,404 in 2024.
  • At the university level, Angelo State University had the highest overall enrollment of dual credit students with 3,987 in fall 2024, which represented a 21% increase from the 3,291 dual credit students enrolled at ASU in fall 2020. For broader context, ASU had just 67 dual credit students enrolled in fall 2014, but increased that number to 1,788 in fall 2015. Across the 10-year window from 2015 to 2024, ASU experienced a 123% increase in the number of dual credit students enrolled in each fall semester.

So What?

A full treatise on the performance funding model for community colleges is beyond the scope of this blog post. However, a few key highlights can connect public policymaking with institutional outcomes. According to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB, Legislative Primer report – September 2024), the passage of House Bill 8 (HB 8) in 2023 implemented a two-part formula funding model for community colleges to receive General Revenue Funds: Base Tier (5% of formula funding) and Performance Tier (95% of formula funding). In the Performance Tier for the 2024-2025 biennium, community colleges are awarded funding based on three metrics: award of credentials, student transfers, and student completion of dual-credit courses. While there is more nuance to the dual-credit course completion definition, the fact that funding is tied directly to dual credit outcomes has likely increased institutions’ emphasis on raising enrollments and the subsequent completion of dual credit courses.

In addition to dual credit serving as a keystone of the performance funding model, this legislation also created the Financial Aid for Swift Transfer (FAST) scholarship program. The FAST program “provides funding to participating public institutions of higher education so they can offer dual credit courses to educationally disadvantaged students at no cost to these students” (THECB). Eligible students are defined by the Texas Education Code (TEC) as being “eligible for the national free/reduced-price lunch program” (TAC Chapter 13, Subchapter Q). By agreeing to participate in the FAST program, “eligible students at participating institutions incur no cost for their dual credit coursework,” meaning no charges for tuition and fees, books, supplies, and other course materials for FAST-eligible students (THECB).

The FAST program established a tuition rate of $56.87 per semester credit hour (or equivalent) for FY 2025, with an increase to $58.52 per SCH in FY 2026. This rate serves two functions: a funding rate for institutional reimbursement and a maximum tuition rate for dual credit courses at participating institutions. As a funding rate, the THECB reported that participating institutions will receive “funding equal to the FAST tuition rate for each semester credit hour (or equivalent) of dual credit coursework taken by an eligible student.” This means a 3-hour dual credit course for qualifying students generates $170.60 in FAST funding for participating institutions while costing zero for eligible students. For comparison, a review of more than a dozen institutional websites (both community colleges and universities) showed the FAST funding was comparable to the average tuition and fees charged for dual credit courses. However, for most of the community colleges reviewed, the FAST funding was higher than the typical per credit hour charged for dual credit courses. One such example was Del Mar College, which had previously charged $33 per SCH. Because the FAST reimbursement rate exceeded the college’s rate, Del Mar was able to waive all costs for dual credit students, even for students not qualifying under the FAST program, partly due to over two-thirds of high school students in Coastal Bend counties qualifying for free dual credit courses under the FAST program (Corpus Christi Caller Times).

While much more could be written, the incentivization of dual credit enrollments and course completions through HB8 in 2023 seems to have produced, at least initially, the intended outcomes. As shown above, dual credit enrollment at community colleges increased by almost 32% from 2020 to 2024. However, what might be more specifically related to HB8 is the fact that total dual credit SCH increased by more than 38% in the past five years, growing from over 978,000 semester credit hours in 2020 to 1.35 million SCH in fall 2024. In fall 2020, dual credit students at public community colleges in Texas were taking 5.77 SCH per student, while that number rose to 6.05 SCH per student in fall 2024. Most of that increase occurred in 2023 and 2024, as the 3-year average from 2020 to 2022 was 5.79 SCH per student, which bumped up to 5.92 in 2023 and 6.05 SCH per student per semester in 2024.

Given the policy- and funding-driven incentives related to dual credit, the number and enrollment intensity (SCH) of dual credit students are likely to increase moving forward. With more high school students earning more college credit across Texas, policymakers and higher education leaders will continue to wrestle with questions about the upstream ramifications for students and the public institutions to which those students matriculate following high school graduation. These topics will be discussed further in upcoming blog posts in this series.