Advanced Placement classes are often seen as stepping stones to college – both academically and financially. Students who successfully pass the end-of-year exams can earn college credit in high school.
Right now, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction covers the entire cost of for AP tests, as long as the student is enrolled in the AP course that semester. The same goes for International Baccalaureate tests.
Other WRAL Top Stories
State lawmakers in the Senate no longer wants to foot the bill, based on the recently released Senate budget proposal.
Coverage of the $99 fee could save families hundreds of dollars per college course.
For example, tuition for a 3-credit hour course at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill costs $877.38. If a high school attains a college-accepted score on the AP exam, that could be a savings of $778.38.
The budget proposal released this week would cut $14 million each year toward paying for students' advanced placement tests but reserve the remaining $4.7 million for economically disadvantaged students.
The state has a specific definition for “economically disadvantaged” to include students eligible for free meals, those experiencing homelessness and Medicaid recipients.
About 760,000 students fit that category in December 2024, according to DPI data. That's 48.7% of the state's more than 1.5 million public school students.
“I don’t think a lot of kids would be able to pay for [the AP exam]. They’re trying to get to the point where they can make more money...and get into a better college,” AP student Parker Jenkins told WRAL. “I think we should probably keep funding it.”
Andy Crane has tutored students for more than a decade.
“An AP class is typically going to be a little more challenging, a little more demanding than your standard academic class, and it's geared towards giving students kind of a crack at college level demand,” Crane said. “You're going to save a pretty substantial amount, even with just one class…that's going to save you tuition. That's going to save you cost of textbooks down the road.”
AP student Yousif Elagha said he gets better opportunities by taking AP classes.
“It gives me a better shot of getting into better schools,” Elagha said.
NCDPI does not currently pay for AP Exams taken by private school students or homeschooled students.
According to NCDPI, 84,372 North Carolina public school students took AP exams in 2024.
Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger did not respond to WRAL’s request for an interview. Monday, he and other Republicans have justified the various cuts in the budget as a way to get rid of what they see as unnecessary government spending.
"I'd like to thank these folks, and I'd like to thank also staff, our budget development team, the nonpartisan staff, for all the work that's been done over the past weeks to get us to this point and our members, particularly those at the subcommittee level, they have taken a fine tooth comb to area budgets to try to find as much cost savings as possible, from eliminating obsolete programs to slashing some of the bloated portions of the bureaucracy, all in an effort that has served people state of North Carolina,” Sen. Berger said in a news conference Monday.
The proposal would also end a decade-long partnership between the state Department of Public Instruction and the College Board aimed at increasing access to advanced coursework.
According to a statement from College Board, the partnership has worked to provide access to AP opportunities for all students. The statement read in part:
We're closely monitoring the proposed Senate budget that seeks to eliminate the AP Partnership, which provides professional development to teachers, counselors and administrators, and seeks to reduce AP Exam funding to low-income students only, providing no assistance to middle class families as the NC General Assembly has done since 2015. We remain committed to working with schools and districts across North Carolina to ensure continued access to AP opportunities.
Since that partnership was formed in 2014, enrollment in AP courses has grown to 97,137 students from 77,392 students in 2015. In 2024, 84,732 students took 155,935 AP exams. About two-thirds of those exams resulted in scores generally accepted for course credit at colleges, according to a 2024 report to the General Assembly.
AP exam participation has increased by 26% statewide over the last ten years, according to NCDPI.
Adjacent programs - International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education – are facing the possibility of similar cuts.
The budget includes a $1.8 million cut each year toward paying for students' international baccalaureate tests, reserving the remaining $500,000 for economically disadvantaged students.