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Committee backs House Bill 175 to expand dual-credit access for home‑school students and clarify program rules
Summary
The House Committee on Education voted to send House Bill 175 to the House floor with a due‑pass recommendation; the bill expands pathways for Advanced Opportunities and clarifies program language for homeschool and private‑school students.
The House Committee on Education voted to send House Bill 175 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation after a committee discussion about program details and technical fixes.
Sponsor Representative Kevin Horman told the committee the bill responds to families who have had trouble working through local districts to access the Advanced Opportunities program and ‘‘looks to just give them another option’’ by allowing students to work directly with community colleges to obtain dual‑credit coursework. Horman said the language was drafted in collaboration with the College of Western Idaho and that the State Department of Education requested technical changes.
Key changes in H.B. 175 described by Horman include: clarifying that Advanced Opportunities funds may be used by homeschool students through community college pathways; allowing students to take a college entrance exam more than once; changing the statutory phrase "tuition and fees" to "educational costs" to align with the Opportunity Scholarship language; and aligning public‑school course failure language with private school language so districts can define what constitutes failure.
Committee members asked several technical and policy questions. Representative Marmon and others sought clarity on the dollar amounts and whether Advanced Opportunities funds (an account described by the sponsor as roughly $4,625 per eligible student) differ from the Opportunity Scholarship (which the sponsor said is about $3,500). Horman replied that those are separate programs with separate amounts and that the bill does not change the Opportunity Scholarship.
Representative Mathias said he would vote against the motion on technical grounds unless language clarifying that college entrance exams and preliminary college entrance exams are not themselves postsecondary credit‑bearing or CTE certificate exams is corrected; he noted the discrepancy could be amended. Mathias was recorded as the lone nay when the committee voted.
Representative Ehart moved and the committee approved sending H.B. 175 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation; the chair recorded Representative Mathias as voting Nay.
No public testimony was offered. The committee’s action forwards H.B. 175 for consideration by the full House.
