ISAT Scholarships

Bryan Fisher of the Idaho Values Alliance:

The "high stakes" test students must take to graduate from high school in Idaho is the ISAT (Idaho Standards Achievement Test). All sophomores take the 10th grade ISAT exam, which the Statesman describes as "the graduation test, which they (students) must pass before getting a diploma." This raises a thought-provoking question: if a student passes "the graduation test" in the 10th grade, and thus has demonstrated the academic proficiency we require of all high school graduates, why are we strapping him in a seat for two more years, at taxpayer expense? A better approach: once a student passes the ISAT, give him his high school diploma, and then use the taxpayer dollars Idaho would otherwise have spent on his last two years of high school instead financing the first two years of his college education. By the time he finishes what would have been his senior year, he'd already have two years of college under his belt, and he and his parents would have just two years of college to fund instead of four. Plus, students who know they are not college bound could begin training for a trade in what otherwise would have been their junior year in high school.

Gale notes:

According to the Idaho Department of Education, taxpayers were charged $8,279 per student last year. This is the average rate. Based upon the State funding formula, the rate for 11th and 12th grades is estimated at $10,665 per year.

Tuition at BSU, U of I, and ISU is $4,410 year year. The ISAT Opportunity Scholarship could provide a full four-year scholarship to any of Idaho's public universities.

Since federal grants and loans are available to private colleges, the ISAT Scholarship could also be used at Idaho's private colleges including College of Idaho, BYU-Idaho, and NNU.