Last week, Townsend Harris Principal Brian Condon emailed the school community to announce that the Queens College bridge program for seniors will be “paused” for the upcoming school year due to rising costs. While free college credits will still be available to seniors, they will now come through a new partnership with St. John’s University, the email said.
The bridge program has faced financial challenges for the past five years. In 2020, citing the pandemic, a spokesperson for the Department of Education told The Classic that THHS would no longer receive a “special allocation” of funds for the program, and the DOE was advising “school leadership to find alternative means to continue funding this program within their budget if they choose to.” According to the article, this added a nearly $700,000 additional expense to the school’s central budget. Since 2020, state support from elected officials has helped aid the program financially, but according to Mr. Condon’s email, that aid alone is no longer sufficient, as each year the cost for the program increases. In May, The Classic reported that funding for the program was “uncertain” and that “while [Mr. Condon] was actively exploring ways to reduce costs with Queens College, the school continues to need financial support to offer all students this experience.”
In his email, Mr. Condon wrote that this year’s negotiations with Queens College had failed to produce the desired cost savings, leading the school to seek a more affordable option from St. John’s University. However, Mr. Condon’s email said that negotiations with QC will resume in September. “This is not an end to the program. This is a pause that merely involves adjusting these course offerings for a year,” he wrote.
Under the new arrangement with St. John’s “College Advantage Program,” seniors will earn St. John’s University credits through courses taught by THHS teachers certified to instruct SJU courses. According to an FAQ document sent to students and families, students will not need to travel to the SJU campus for these courses, and THHS is seeking to rent space from QC to run some THHS classes. In addition to cost savings for the school, the document says, the SJU program ensures that THHS seniors who attend SJU as undergraduates will receive at least $12,000 in scholarships over four years.
This is a developing story. The Classic will publish a full report on this “pause” when the new school year begins this fall.
In the meantime, below are all relevant Classic articles surrounding this issue in chronological order for further reading:
July 2020: Citing budget crisis, DOE cuts funding for Queens College Bridge Program
