Meetings set for seniors to go on to college

The U.S. Department of Education ranks Idaho dead last when it comes to high school seniors going on to college..

A senior at Hillcrest high school said that he’s already thinking about college.

“Right after graduation I’m planning on going on a mission for the LDS church then following that I’m hoping to go to school. I’m thinking about Utah State or BYU right now.”

The Idaho Department of Education is hoping to change the low percent of postsecondary attendees, by developing a program called Direct Admission.

This program will allow seniors who attended an Idaho public school to be automatically accepted at a state university if they have a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The University of Idaho is holding a statewide meeting with seniors to help explain the program.

Here’s a link to a list of where the meeting will be held https://www.uidaho.edu/events/enroll-idaho.

According to national data, the state with the highest go on rate is Mississippi with 81 percent.

And Idaho stands with only 50 percent.

However, not everyone is in favor of this, District 93’s Assistant Superintendent of Bonneville School District Scott Woolstenhulme said, “Choice is fundamental to everybody, we have students who make different choices right out of high school and they might postpone college for a couple years. So I’m not sure that a state program where they automatically enroll students into a state school would be the right option for all of our students.”

He also said the date maybe a little fuzzy when it comes to calculating demographics and other life variables.

“I think our numbers are probably higher than what the data shows,typically they’re looking at students who graduate within five years after leaving high school and so in our community we have students who attend missions for LDS church or enroll in military,” said Woolstenhulme.

Cezar Mesguita, director of admissions, University of Idaho said,”It’s not being ignored the realities that there are many states with the same population profile as Idaho. Other states are doing better at giving their students a better education.”

According to national data, around two-thirds of all jobs by the year 2025 will require some type of education after high school.