First, let me preface this by saying the 50 K has not been stolen yet! You see, that is what it will cost me for 2 years of college at UT or A&M for my daughter in a few years. There is however, the potential for her to attend an Early College HS in her district and have an associates degree along with her HS Diploma. That's 2 years I don't have to pay for! FREE!! 50 K in my pocket.......................but wait...there is a snag..............you see, even though my daughter makes straight A's, works hard, has never been a discipline issue, attends every day, and is totally focused on her academics, there is an APPLICATION process to this "Early College" stuff.....OK I say.

Rewind to last night as the district invited the "prospective" early college students and their parents up to the school for more information on the program. After one hour of listening to presentation and viewing the powerpoints, the last powerpoint mentions a "LOTTERY" for being chosen to the program..........hmmmmm I say. Well how does this lottery work I wonder?.........The presenter then starts to talk about criteria for getting your child's name in that proverbial hat. The first criteria, a simple recommendation from the building principal at the attending school.......Cool I say, that wont be an issue. So my daughter is gonna have her name in the hat along with the other applicants and they will draw names to fill the open places, completely fair I thought. But wait there is more.................at least for "other" applicants, there is more.......................... So the presenter starts rattling off terms like socio-economic status, 504 status, At-Risk status, disadvantaged sub-pops, racial profiles, past parental college, and even gender. I soon learned that should ANY of the other students my daughter is "competing" against meet any of these criteria, they get an additional "LOTTERY TICKET".....................WHOOAAAAAAA...........Wait a minute here....I have been sitting here for over an hour listening intently to this stuff and I just learned that my daughter has a better chance of winning the freakin mega ball than getting into this school!!! You talk about some serious teeth grinding going on!! I could literally feel my blood pressure skyrocketing. I would have been much better served had they had a sign on the front door saying "Middle Class Caucasian Female Students who have parents with a College Education need not apply".....................Man, talk about a slap in the face.

So there ya go, $50,000 STOLEN!!!

Who sets the criteria?

Our STATE!!!! Texas Education Agency!!

Yep...It is a crock of...

You should have gotten into drugs in high school, dropped out, moved to the ghetto, done a few stints in prison, quit and get fired from a few jobs every year, had about seven more kids, and been some kind of a minority.

Sadly if you don't fit this criteria you are privileged and everything just comes easy for you. It has nothing to do with your life decisions and hard work. It's all luck. So they are trying to give some of that luck to others who weren't "lucky".

That darned Nancy Reagan, I knew I should not have listened to her.

No, no money was stolen. Take away all the other factors and there was never a guaranty your daughter was going to get in the program.

Let's say there are 50 open spots and there are 150 kids vying for them. Even if each kid gets one card in the hat there is still a good chance your daughter wouldn't get pulled.

That said, you should still do everything to try and get her in the program. There has to be a formal written criteria. Get it and read it carefully Maybe your daughter will qualify for an additional drop.

isn't affirmative action great

Your right, it was not stolen, but the "fair and equal opportunity" was stolen and you can't argue that.

Yeah, I may have OVERSIMPLIFIED in my topic line. There are 125 spots available and 85 were left on the "waiting" list last year. 6 were chosen from that waiting list.

According to the TEA website:

The Early College High Schools (ECHS) are innovative high schools that allow students least likely to attend college an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and 60 college credit hours

The highest concentration of Early College High Schools in Texas are located in the Rio Grande Valley.

It�s one of several education programs specifically designed to help underserved students develop technical skills, earn college credit, and pursue in-demand career paths.

The ECHS Initiative began in 2002 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

I hate how they use "underserved". Like your kid had more access to the teachers and textbooks than others. You raise a hard working diligent kid only to get undercut by someone who didn't give a chit until the last minute.

What it sounds like to me.............. social progressivism with a heavy dose of discrimination. Not gonna even say reverse discrimination because there is no such thing.

What school system.. Here in Sachse most all of the AP classes are transitional for college credit.

It is in part because Texas refuses to fund education at the level that is needed.

Agreed. You never know, she might be 1/1024th of a qualifying minority and get that additional chance.