Save time, money with online learning

On open letter to Utah students:

Would you like to skip four years of school and still end up with a college degree? Would your parents like to pay $10,000 rather than $50,000 for your bachelor's degree? Would you like to graduate with a high school diploma and bachelor's degree at the same time?

Anyone in Utah who starts accelerating his or her education online in junior high school can finish a bachelor's degree by high school graduation and potentially save $20,000 to $40,000 in college tuition, room and board and transportation.

1. If you are 8 to 14 years old, take a few easy Electronic High School classes like Spanish I and II during the summers. EHS principal Richard Siddoway will allow Utah students to take free online high school courses anytime. Certified public school teachers answer your questions through e-mail. EHS foreign language courses use Rosetta Stone, a state-of-the-art interactive multimedia language program. (The U.S. military and NASA astronauts use Rosetta Stone.) You can also take Salt Lake Community College courses as early as fifth or sixth grade if you have special permission from the president, a release from your school district and above-average college placement test scores in math, reading and English.

2. If you will be entering junior high school next year, take your normal classes for four hours in the morning and think about taking Electronic High School or college courses for one to three hours in the afternoon. An accelerated seventh-grade student who takes online classes for two hours every afternoon rarely does homework at night because the student finishes homework during the day. The student will finish ancient world civilizations, algebra I, Spanish I and Spanish II by the end of summer.

Take the following EHS courses in the afternoons while you are in junior high school: algebra I, any foreign language I and II, intermediate algebra, ninth- and 10th-grade English, geometry, U.S history, biology and chemistry. Take EHS's easier courses like fitness for life, health education, psychology, sociology, computer technology and career development during the summers.

3. If you have taken all the classes listed above by the time you start ninth grade, you should be a high school junior at EHS. Apply to go to college early at acceleration-friendly programs like Early College at Weber State University (and ask about a scholarship), the High School University Program at the University of Utah, Early Admission at Salt Lake Community College or the Concurrent Enrollment/EdNet program at Utah Valley State College.