Across the States
College admissions discrimination ended
In 2005, some of our Home School Legal Defense Association members in Colorado reported a state college admissions policy to us, believing the policy to be discriminatory toward home-educated students.
For years, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) had been enforcing this policy, which required all state colleges to automatically assign every homeschooled applicant’s high school transcript a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0-no exceptions. It did not matter if the student had an actual GPA higher than 3.0. The CCHE claimed that this policy was necessary to correct for falsely padded transcript grades or test scores.
This automatic GPA designation for all homeschoolers was not only discriminatory, but somewhat problematic: homeschoolers were put at a disadvantage when applying for academic-based scholarships and other financial aid.
At the urging of some of our member families, HSLDA Senior Counsel Christopher Klicka contacted the CCHE and began dialoging with them. In conversations and written correspondence, Klicka explained that homeschool students typically score above average on nationally standardized achievement tests as well as on the ACT and SAT college entrance exams. He used studies and further evidence of the tremendous success of homeschoolers to show why the commission’s GPA policy was unnecessary. Klicka also pointed out that homeschooling parents would be highly unlikely to falsely pad their children’s transcripts, since that would defeat their goal of raising competent, ethical adults.
Klicka convinced his CCHE contact, Chief Academic Officer Matt Gensee, to try to repeal the discriminatory policy. On November 2, 2006, Gensee presented Klicka’s arguments and a proposed policy change to the commission.
There is now good news for homeschoolers seeking admission to state colleges. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education officially changed their policy, scrapping the automatic 3.0 GPA for homeschoolers and replacing it with a policy that allows each homeschooler’s high school transcript to be credited at face value. From now on, homeschooler’s transcripts will be treated the same as the transcripts of other college applicants.
— by Christopher J. Klicka
