While students may be liable to pay for books and fees, local school districts pay for the college tuition. Bear Lake High School, where the entire senior class is dual enrolled, is perhaps the best example of integration between high school and community college. Richard Toubaugh, counselor at Brethren High, and also McKee's stepfather, said that through two dual enrollment programs with West Shore, Brethren is able to get by with one less teacher and also offers advanced courses to its students. Toubaugh said that for students, dual registration may be a better deal than advanced placement courses, anyway. When it's college, students have a different approach to it.
Dual enrollment can represent a financial windfall to families as well.
While his parents like to brag about his accomplishments and administrators at the high school and college say he is an exemplar student, McKee himself is rather low key about getting his associate's degree while still in high school. There is at least one drawback to dual enrollment, however. Everyone else has two years to go to college and make a decision. I have to do it right away. The Traverse City Record-Eagle.