Minnesota committee hears Pequot Lakes leaders and staff on PSEO and concurrent enrollment challenges

The House Education Finance Committee held a roundtable March 5, 2025, on postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO) and concurrent enrollment, hearing from nonpartisan staff and local school leaders about funding, accountability and program design.

Nonpartisan presenters summarized three main types of dual-enrollment programs in Minnesota: traditional PSEO (students take courses directly at postsecondary institutions and earn both secondary and postsecondary credit), courses-by-agreement (contractual arrangements between districts and colleges), and concurrent enrollment (college-credit courses taught in high schools by credentialed high-school teachers). Staff noted the state paid roughly $48.6 million directly to postsecondary institutions for traditional PSEO in fiscal 2024 and that traditional PSEO enrollment and credit data are tracked in state reports.

Kurt Stumpf, superintendent of Pequot Lakes Schools, and Aaron Nelson, Pequot Lakes High School principal, described district-level impacts. Nelson said the district offers a large concurrent enrollment program (“college in the schools”) with 123 credits available through high-school-taught courses, at an average cost the district reported as $30.86 per credit. By contrast, Nelson said PSEO credits taken through postsecondary institutions averaged $261 per credit in his district; last fall he said that produced a roughly $111,000 cost for PSEO credits versus $45,000 for concurrent-enrollment credits for comparable student credit totals.

Nelson and Stumpf told the committee PSEO’s growing online flexibility and lower barriers have driven student demand for traditional PSEO, but that model can introduce several challenges for high schools: reduced academic oversight, limited access to student progress and records while students are enrolled off-campus, and fiscal unpredictability when students enroll or drop after schools finalize staffing. Nelson said his district experienced students failing PSEO courses (he cited five students failing a course in one recent term) and that district counselors often learn about problems only after final grades return from the college. Stumpf added that late student transfers can leave the original district billed for credits if receiving districts are not obliged to reimburse.

Both administrators advocated state policy changes to encourage concurrent enrollment and reduce costs while preserving student choice. Recommendations they presented to the committee included:

- Establish a single, uniform payment process for PSEO/course agreements (proposal example: set a standard state reimbursement rate lower than current payments to postsecondary institutions, cited draft figure $125/credit in their materials). - Extend the postsecondary “drop” window or align deadlines so high schools have time to counsel and adjust students’ schedules before colleges finalize refunds and billing. - Encourage regional consortiums or a grant program to expand concurrent enrollment (online consortium of district-taught college-credit courses) so smaller districts can offer more course options at lower per-credit costs. - Clarify duplication rules so students do not generate state funding twice for the same course when it is offered both as concurrent enrollment and via PSEO.

Several lawmakers asked about accountability and student supports. Representative Quam and others suggested concurrent enrollment can serve as a bridge for students to test college-style expectations; committee members discussed strategies to reduce late drops and to require better information-sharing so high schools can monitor student progress in off-campus courses. Nonpartisan staff noted Higher Learning Commission requirements for concurrent-enrollment teacher credentials (master’s degree plus 18 graduate credits in the content area) and described the existing concurrent-enrollment grant program the Legislature funds.

The session did not produce legislative votes on PSEO policy changes; members and presenters agreed to continue work on potential statutory fixes and funding options ahead of budget deliberations.