Photo credit: Monroe Community College
Crain’s Detroit Business
Jan. 30, 2026
Sherri Welch
Michigan school districts pay millions each year for dual-enrollment courses that help students get ahead — but under the state’s funding formula, they’re financially punished for doing so. Now, a bipartisan task force is weighing recommendations to change that, with advocates pushing for dedicated funding as soon as the fiscal 2027 budget.
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The Detroit Regional Chamber and other business groups including the Small Business Association of Michigan, Michigan Manufacturing Association and TalentFirst, a West Michigan-based CEO-led alliance dedicated to strengthening the regional workforce, have called for changing the funding model for dual-enrollment programs among efforts to increase the number of people completing post-secondary education.
“Dual enrollment has proven to be an effective strategy for increasing the percentage of students who enroll in college after high school,” said Greg Handel, chief education and talent officer for the Detroit Regional Chamber.
In Michigan, 80% of students who enrolled in dual enrollment in 2023 went on to college after high school, compared to 54% of the entire high school graduating class, he said, quoting findings in the chamber’s 2025 State of Education and Talent Report.
Additionally, 28% of dual-enrolled students completed college in four years compared to 15% of other students from the graduating class of 2020, he said.
“This is one of many strategies we’ve pursued with other partners” to achieve the state’s goal of having 60% of its residents holding a post-secondary certificate or degree by 2030, Handel said.
“We want to add a better funding mechanism for dual enrollment so we can continue to support more students on their path into higher education. This is on our priority list,” Handel said.
As a whole, Michigan students are way behind their peers in other states in taking advantage of dual enrollment, Handel said Thursday during the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Policy Conference. Just 7% of Michigan students graduate with dual-enrollment credit, compared to some 40% in Indiana.
“In states where more students take advantage of it, the state has a funding mechanism that does not put the burden on the high school. So that’s something that we and a lot of other stakeholders are talking to the Legislature about right now … it’s another way to create more pathways for those students into higher ed,” he said.