Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

During this festive graduation season, I am especially proud to congratulate the first graduating class of Clear Creek ISD’s Clear Horizons Early College High School, who received their diplomas just a few weeks ago. Their achievement paves the way for many others who will follow, providing hope for a bright and productive future.

You may have heard the saying “education pays,” essentially meaning invest in, or sow, a robust education system today and reap the rewards from an educated, competitive population and work force tomorrow. Nowhere is the adage proven truer and more supported by hard data than the early college high school model.

Early college high schools allow students (minority, low income, first generation college-goers, and/or highly capable) to graduate with a high school diploma along with an associate’s degree or up to two years of college credit toward a bachelor’s degree, typically tuition-free.

Even with the rising cost of higher education, I find it increasingly more difficult to put a price on a win-win concept like the early college high school.

There is no question that the model provides hope for college, especially for kids who may think higher education is financially out of reach or who exhibit the desire, commitment and abilities to see it through.

In the end, higher education becomes more attainable for these students, and states that opt to support such a model reap their financial investment in terms of higher educational attainment for young people, increased earnings and a longer working life for graduates, resulting in increased future tax revenues.

But in truth, it is the higher educational attainment part that is where it all pays off for our community as a whole, in a dramatic domino-like effect. Here’s how:

Median lifetime earnings for individuals with some college, but no degree, are 19 percent higher than median lifetime earnings for high school graduates with no college experience.

And since 77 percent of students who enroll in an early college high school are accepted to higher college education institutions, the typical bachelor’s degree recipient can expect to earn about 61 percent more over a 40-year working life than the typical high school graduate earns over the same period.

Anticipating the model’s potential for our own district and region, Clear Creek ISD was eager to not only jump on the innovation bandwagon, but actually be a trailblazer for the model, launching Clear Horizons Early College High School in 2007 after a successful one-year pilot program called Project ExCEL.

As the superintendent of one of only 41 districts in the state of Texas who are home to an early college high school, I am continually inspired to tout both the measurable and intangible value central to this relatively new academic model.

This month, CCISD’s Clear Horizons, which in its first year of full implementation earned an Exemplary rating from the Texas Education Agency, was proud to graduate its first class of students earning both a high school diploma from Clear Creek ISD and an associate’s degree from San Jacinto College. In illustration of the above-mentioned trends, 100 percent of this graduating class intend to continue their education in pursuit of their bachelor’s degrees.

This is all great stuff. The tough stuff so closely linked to this important initiative lies in the challenge of sustained funding. Speaking specifically for Clear Horizons’ funding structure, the high school portion of the student’s expenses is funded through local tax dollars. The college tuition and books portion is funded through a grant from the Texas Education Agency. This grant allowed interested and qualifying districts to implement a full-time early college high school. “Implement” is the operative word here as the grant expires this year.

The magnitude of the return on this higher education model demands that Clear Creek ISD, and other districts that are home to an early college high school, identify replacement revenue streams for the program, be they through legislative appropriations, additional grants, local tax dollars or community backing and engagement. So given that Clear Creek’s Clear Horizons has already harvested quantifiable proof that this program is indeed a life changer for its students, we have the greatest inspiration of all to see this worthy challenge through.