National School Choice Week typically highlights the options available to families when selecting a school, including district, charter, private and homeschool. But there’s another form of choice that rarely gets the spotlight.
It’s a choice about what you study, who teaches it and how fast you can move from high school to a credential and a career. That hidden-in-plain-sight choice is dual enrollment — high school students taking college courses for credit.
National School Choice Week is an opportunity to point out that dual enrollment is one of the largest and fastest-growing forms of public school choice in America. It’s a school choice growth story that no one’s talking about.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recently reported a modest increase in college undergraduate enrollment in fall 2025 — about 1%, driven by a 3% increase in community college enrollment. Buried inside those headlines is a key driver of that community college growth.
