Imagine spending a whole year of high school completing  college and career pathway courses in addition to standard courses and graduating. 

Now imagine deciding to pursue higher ed and  the colleges you’re applying to won’t accept the credit you worked hard to earn. 

That’s the reality for some students across the state of Louisiana right now - and it’s stopping many of them from attending college at all. 

Through Career and Technical Education (CTE) dual enrollment courses, students complete college-level courses during high school, earn industry based credentials (IBC) - saving time and money on their way to life after high school. But when higher education institutions don’t accept technical dual enrollment credits, students and families face the frustrating challenge of paying for credits they’ve already earned. Leaders of Color Louisiana is working to help students who complete CTE courses make the transition to college easier and more affordable by expanding CTE dual enrollment opportunities in our public schools through our support for Louisiana House Resolution 101 (HR 101).

HR 101, which passed in the Louisiana legislature House Education Committee on May 10, requests an urgent study to evaluate the credit transfer process for students who complete career and technical education (CTE) courses in high school and want to transfer those credits to higher education institutions. The study will examine credit transfer pathways across the state of Louisiana by December 2023, and make recommendations for legislation to be included in the 2024 legislation session.

Leaders of Color Louisiana is supporting the work of youth-serving organizations to address this issue. For example, Leader of Color Louisiana is activating its fellows and alumni to support HR 101 with YouthForce NOLA, an organization that is preparing Louisiana’s public school students for successful jobs. YouthForce NOLA supported a similar resolution (HCR5) to make technical credit transfer between two-year and four-year colleges and universities easier. That study will run at the same time as the study examining high school-to-college credit transfer, with the end goal of ensuring that college credits that are earned in high school and two-year colleges can be easily transferred and accepted by four-year institutions for all Louisiana students. 

To help more Black and Latinx students attend and graduate from college we must break down systemic problems - like college credit transfer - that stand in their way. College affordability is a key issue for Black and Latinx students across the country and in the state of Louisiana. In 2022, 41.8% of students in Louisiana public schools identified as Black and 10.2% of students identified as Hispanic. Leaders of Color Louisiana is working to bridge the gap between high school and college so that Louisiana’s kids have a chance to get their degrees, get good jobs, and build wealth.  

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