More than 100 Montgomery County high school students dropped their Montgomery College courses after the school district told them this summer it would no longer pay their tuition.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) notified 289 students they did not meet the state's College and Career Readiness standard and would have to cover their own dual enrollment costs or apply for a Montgomery College grant, according to a County Council staff memo. Of those students, 102 dropped their college courses entirely, as Moderately MoCo first reported from the council committee session.

MCPS officials presented the numbers at the Education and Culture Committee session Monday, Oct. 26. When committee chair Will Jawando asked whether the 102 students left primarily because of cost, an MCPS official answered, "Unfortunately we don't" know, adding that "we may have to dig in."

Officials said they did not have data on the 102 students with them at the session.

The dual enrollment cut traces to MCPS eliminating a planned increase in dual enrollment tuition funding when it balanced its fiscal year 2027 budget. The district had previously covered tuition, fees and textbooks for all high school students taking Montgomery College courses. Under the new policy, MCPS pays only for students who meet the College and Career Readiness standard, a benchmark defined in the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, the state's education reform law.

As of Aug. 25, MCPS was covering tuition for 2,234 students who met that standard, the memo states.

What happened to the 289 students

The council memo breaks down the outcomes:

  • 102 dropped their college courses.
  • 100 stayed enrolled, paying themselves or covered by a Montgomery College high school grant.
  • 31 met the readiness standard over the summer, so MCPS resumed paying.
  • 56 students in Clarksburg High School's P-TECH program had their courses delayed to 11th grade.

Council members push for answers

Councilmember Kristin Mink compared dual enrollment to prekindergarten, calling both vital programs that fall outside MCPS's core kindergarten-through-12th-grade mandate. She asked where the money would come from, saying the problem needs to be solved "in state law somewhere." Mink also requested a demographic and school-by-school breakdown of the affected students, compared with prior years.

An MCPS official told the committee the Board of Education has pushed the state to adopt a flexible sliding-scale payment model, but that effort has not succeeded.

Bethesda Magazine reported in July that MCPS had sent letters to the 289 families. At the time, Brigid Howe, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, called the late notice unfair to families facing August payment deadlines.

The estimated cost for MCPS to reimburse Montgomery College for dual enrollment tuition in the 2026-2027 school year is approximately $5.9 million, according to the council memo. The Board of Education was scheduled to vote on that reimbursement contract Oct. 22, though the outcome of that vote does not appear in available records.

No school-by-school data has been released showing which high schools lost dual enrollment students. Mink's request for that breakdown remains pending.