The clock ticks away as the Texas Legislature no longer funds for early graduation scholarships.
Due to the state legislature cutting roughly $4 billion from public schools, college is now an even bigger stretch for some.
“I think it’s very difficult to graduate early as it is,” counselor Paige Liggett said. “I didn’t see a need for a scholarship in the first place.”
The Texas Early High School Graduation Scholarship program discontinued funding for fall of 2011 through the summer of 2013. The intent for this funding was to help those graduating early by giving them a sufficient amount of money; varying by how much time it took a student to graduate. However, the advantage of financial help might be a reason for students to finish early.
“I would want a student to have a more legitimate reason to graduate early,” Liggett said.
Along with the scholarship program’s end includes the University of Texas’ Talent Search for the Wise County area. For sophomore Justin Dillard, that was all it took to shatter his plans.
“I wanted to try to graduate early, fulfill the requirements and attempt to get stronger in my education starting my sophomore year because the opportunity existed,” Dillard said.
The objective of the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) program is to have high school age students participate in both mathematic and science courses on the university campus over the span of two years. It gives advanced students a chance to engage in higher-level thinking. However due to the specified budget cuts, Dillard no longer plans to attend the program.
Dillard said, “I wanted to change from UNT to Baylor the second year after I finished TAMS. But now that TAMS isn’t an option, I decided the best course of action would be going straight to Baylor instead of taking UNT.”
And now that students graduating early no longer receive fee assistance from early graduate scholarship programs, they must find new ways to pay for their education.
Dillard said, “The fact that the educational chance was presented was enough for me to try, and to this day I try to further my educational status. Simply fulfill dreams of my own.”
