Although dual credit curriculum decisions rest with HCC faculty—not FBISD—the district’s Chief Academic Officer, Adam Stephens, said the shift toward using the state’s Texas Open Educational Resources, or OER, aims to reduce student costs. The change comes as Texas transitions to a funding model that caps dual credit tuition and offers free courses to students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
"The college committed that ... hopefully by the end of the 2026 school year, they'll have everything OER,” Stephens said at the Oct. 6 agenda review meeting.
The background
Stephens said the district has approved yearly partnerships with HCC, which has existed since the 2013-14 school year, allowing students to take college-level courses and offering pathways for associate degrees, certificates or industry certifications alongside their high school diploma, per the agreement.
In particular, the agreement waives the tuition for students enrolled in the district’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School at Hightower High and Early College High School at Marshall High, which offer students up to 60 credit hours—totaling an associate’s degree—upon completion, according to the agreement.
The initial agreement for 2025-26 was approved in July, but proposed updates were presented at the Oct. 6 board meeting, including provisions outlining the use of OER in dual credit courses and permission for HCC to pay stipends to college-hired district instructors based on HCC’s faculty salary rates, according to district documents.
What’s changing?
Under House Bill 8, passed in 2023, Texas invested $683 million into community colleges and revamped the funding model to reward student outcomes, such as earning college credits, workforce certifications, dual credit completion and university transfers, Community Impact reported.
The bill provides Financial Aid for Swift Transfer, or FAST, funding at up to $58.52 per semester credit hour to help colleges offer tuition-free dual credit courses to low-income students. While it doesn’t fully cover instructional costs, colleges can combine FAST with other funding to meet the no-cost requirement, according to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board documents.
Funding is only available for students earning college credit in core curriculum, career and technical education or foreign language courses, per the HCC agreement. Non-eligible students pay a flat fee of $65 per course, which is under the cap set by the THECB.
As part of the proposed district amendment, dual credit courses will increasingly rely on free OER from the state’s repository to meet no-cost requirements for low-income students, Stephens said.
Another thing
According to THECB documents, school districts are responsible for covering the cost of non-OER instructional materials. Stephens said this has created challenges for courses such as biology and chemistry labs, which still require physical textbooks and materials difficult to replace with digital alternatives.
He added that some subjects often rely on consumable materials and updated textbooks, which must be replaced annually. Additionally, Stephens said some colleges have raised textbook and course material fees to recoup revenue lost due to tuition caps.
Community Impact reached out to district officials for comment on potential dual credit cost increases for the 2025-26 school year, but did not receive a response by press time.
Moving forward
In July, trustee Angie Hanan said the district’s policy committee should examine how various advanced coursework programs align in terms of academic rigor and grading standards—particularly since all receive an additional 10-point GPA weight under state guidelines.
To date, district officials have not announced any formal review of this alignment. The board is scheduled to vote on the updated agreement Oct. 27.
