SALEM - Gov. John Lynch today announced a plan to double enrollment in a program that lets high school students take college courses at their high schools, better preparing students for college and helping families save on future tuition costs.

"I believe education is all about opportunity - the opportunity we give our children to have better lives and compete for better jobs," Gov. Lynch said. "I am working to make sure every child in New Hampshire has the opportunity for a great education; to increase New Hampshire'shigh school graduation rate; and to make higher education more affordable and accessible for all our families."

"I want to make it possible for more of our students to earn college credits by taking college classes at their local high schools, which will help prepare them for college and help them save on future tuition costs. That is why today, I am announcing a plan to double Project Running Start's enrollment throughout the State of New Hampshire," Gov. Lynch said at Salem High School.

Project Running Start, run through New Hampshire'sCommunity Technical College System, allows students to take college-level courses for credit at their local high schools for just $100 per course. The courses are widely accepted for credit at the community technical colleges, the University System, and a number of private and public colleges.

"A semester of classes at New Hampshire'scommunity technical colleges costs about $2,500. A semester at UNH costs about $5,000 - and that doesn ' t include room and board. Running Start offers the chance for significant savings for our families.
Depending on how many courses students take, they and their families could save several thousand dollars on tuition costs," Gov. Lynch said.

Project Running Start offers more than 397 classes - everything from math and English to microbiology - which will help students not only meet basic college requirements, but also explore what subjects may interest them in college.

By expanding Running Start, New Hampshire will also be expanding Project Lead the Way - a five-course sequence of pre-engineering classes - that introduces students to engineering and gets them interested in pursuing engineering careers.

"In today'seconomy, the demand for engineers and for people with solid math and science backgrounds is growing constantly. This will help attract more students to engineering careers," Gov. Lynch said.

Project Running Start offers other benefits, Gov. Lynch said, including making the senior year of high school more challenging, and showing high school students that they can succeed in college.

"For New Hampshire's economy to thrive and for our young people to succeed, we must make sure more of our students go on to college. Project Running Start shows students that they can do college-level work and that they can succeed, and helps their families save money," Gov. Lynch said.

Last year, about 3,114 high school students took Running Start classes at 66 New Hampshire high schools.

"Our goal is to expand the number of teachers trained, expand student enrollment to 7,500 and to ensure that Project Running Start is available to students at all 80 public high schools in New Hampshire," Gov. Lynch said.

To meet that goal, Gov. Lynch said he will propose adding $382,000 in the next budget to the program. That increase will pay for full-time coordinators that will help launch new Running Start programs at high schools that don ' t have them; expand offerings at high schools already offering Running Start; train instructors for Running Start courses; and provide a $100,000 scholarship fund to help students pay the cost of Running Start courses.

"Expanding Project Running Start is a smart, cost-effective investment for our state that will make a difference for the budgets of our families, and expand opportunity for our students," Gov. Lynch said.