Gianneschi: CMC celebrates 20 years of concurrent enrollment and millions in savings for local families
CMC president
Courtesy photo
As the cost of higher education continues to rise, families more and more often question whether college is worth it. Colorado Mountain College has an answer.
For the past 20 years, the college has worked with local school districts to deliver robust concurrent enrollment classes to high schools across the Western Slope. These programs help students earn college credit for free while still in high school, reducing their overall cost for higher education and allowing many to earn a college certificate or degree before graduation.
When we began offering concurrent enrollment courses two decades ago, CMC served roughly 570 students. Not bad, considering that the entire state of Colorado reported only 5,000 students in these programs statewide.
Since the passage of Colorado’s Concurrent Enrollment Programs Act in 2009, which introduced improved data collection standards, CMC’s program has served 16,383 students who earned 200,551 credits. That’s approximately 1,671 bachelor’s degrees or 3,342 associate degrees.
Put another way, at today’s prices, that’s nearly $21 million in free college credits at CMC ($104/credit hour), $63 million at Colorado Mesa University tuition rates ($314/credit hour), or around $102 million in credits at the University of Colorado rates ($513/credit hour).
Including students who participated in concurrent enrollment prior to 2009, we estimate that over the past 20 years, CMC has supported 19,963 high school students who went on to earn 4,081 degrees from the college, either during their concurrent experience or shortly after.
Very intentionally, CMC is now the largest concurrent enrollment provider on the Western Slope — a responsibility we do not take lightly.
More than 40% of students registered at CMC are in concurrent enrollment programs. With such a significant shared stake in the education of local students, CMC is committed to ensuring that we provide classes and programs that will enable students to earn credits that will transfer to any public university in Colorado or earn a degree at CMC that leads to a livable wage in our mountain towns.
One way we’re putting this commitment into action is through career-focused programs that prepare students for in-demand jobs right in their communities. A recent example is the opening of a new automotive technology center in Glenwood Springs. This partnership with the Roaring Fork School District provides hands-on technical experience in a state-of-the-art facility for students across the Roaring Fork Valley. Similar programs are already in place throughout the CMC tax district.
CMC is also expanding its concurrent enrollment opportunities to allow more students to earn credentials certifying the mastery of workplace “essential skills,” such as collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Additionally, area high school students who are English language learners will now have access to the new English Acquisition for Academic Purposes certificate through concurrent enrollment, empowering them to earn college credit while acquiring English.
Always eager to innovate and expand opportunities, CMC continues to bring together school district partners to discuss trends in concurrent enrollment, strategies to better serve students and ideas for new programs to expand enrollment and enrich communities.
As a locally funded college, Colorado Mountain College’s mission is to serve the academic needs of local students and support the economic vitality of rural mountain communities. Delivering affordable, relevant, accessible education is what CMC does and why it exists.
For the last 20 years, it has been CMC’s privilege to partner with all school districts in CMC’s tax district and many others throughout the state to provide academic programs that might have otherwise been impossible to deliver in rural schools. The impact is clear: Families have saved tens of millions of dollars in tuition, and students have gained a head start on college and careers. As we look to the future, CMC remains committed to expanding these opportunities, ensuring that higher education remains accessible, affordable and deeply connected to the needs of our mountain communities.
Dr. Matt Gianneschi is the President of Colorado Mountain College.
