The Little-Noticed Policy Change Promoting Three-Year High School Diplomas

A 2023 bill outlining one of the most controversial education proposals in recent memory—the extension of North Carolina private school tuition subsidies to all families, regardless of their wealth—had two other consequential sections that mostly escaped public notice.

The changes lowered the graduation credit requirements for many public high schools and created a scholarship program to encourage students to graduate in three years instead of four.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Republican state Sen. Michael Lee, told the Charlotte public radio station WFAE at the time that the changes were intended to let teens move faster into the workforce, the military, or higher education. Earlier this year, North Carolina’s public universities were asked to pitch their own three-year degree offerings, adding fuel to the fiery debate about the purpose of education.

Lee’s proposal for an accelerated high school pathway ultimately passed into law through the 2023 state budget. It required school districts to advise students about the three-year option and an associated scholarship program. Charter schools, which are public but independently run, were given the choice to offer the pathway, but not required.

Last year, just 346 students statewide went that route, according to a June report the Department of Public Instruction submitted to the General Assembly.

School districts and charter schools also tried to quantify the policy’s effect in the 2024-25 school year, but the change in graduation requirements made it tricky. Before the policy capping the required credits at 22 went into law, students in some schools had been expected to earn at least 28. Those on track to graduate in four years under the higher standards were “able to graduate early from high school without specifying the three-year pathway,” DPI officials wrote in their 2025 report. Districts couldn’t distinguish between the students who stumbled into early graduation by virtue of the new lower standards from the ones who intentionally chose an accelerated pathway.

Lawmakers Bet Interest Will Grow

The new policy stemmed at least in part from the experience of one of Lee’s sons in New Hanover County, where students were required to earn 28 credits to graduate. His son Sam enlisted in the Navy after graduating high school in three and a half years, Lee told WFAE and The News & Observer. But if he had attended school in another part of the state, Lee suggested, he likely could have graduated sooner.

Lee, now running for re-election as well as the Senate’s top leadership position, initially seemed open to speaking with The Assembly for this story, but his legislative aide stopped responding to scheduling attempts.

New Hanover’s superintendent, Christopher Barnes, is among the policy’s critics. 

“High school is designed for you to determine the direction and course of the first couple of decades after you graduate,” Barnes said in a July interview. “If you accelerate kids and kick them out into the real world too early, it’s just as bad as taking a cake out of the oven before it’s done.”

Before a student can officially opt in to the three-year pathway, a counselor will meet with both the student and their family, said Robin Hamilton, the district’s chief academic officer. 

Part of that meeting, which is required by State Board of Education policy, is to explain what the student would give up by graduating early: time to develop social and emotional maturity, opportunities for career exploration, participation in sports teams, free or reduced-price meals, mental health counseling, and access to health clinics. 

Students and families also learn about the district’s dual-enrollment offerings, which allow students to earn associate degrees, college credits, and professional credentials while still enrolled in high school—and with the district covering tuition and fees. 

“Our role as counselors is to ensure that the student and the parent are educated on all options,” said Veronica Edge-Hall, who oversees New Hanover’s secondary school counseling. 

To choose the three-year pathway, a student must state their post-graduation intentions in detail, Hamilton said. A student who wants to enlist in the military, for example, has to state when they’re going to boot camp. Then the student, their parents, their counselor, and their principal must all sign off.

In each of the past two school years, 12% to 13% of the district’s students opted to graduate in three or three and a half years, Hamilton said. 

Though she agrees with Barnes that four years of high school is often the best choice, she said she has seen cases where the three-year pathway allowed a student to take advantage of a rare and time-limited opportunity. One student had a high-end modeling career. Another, who was a talented athlete, complied with a university’s request to come to campus early. 

“Then there are those times when people, children really, have to make that decision because something’s happened with a parent, maybe the death of a parent, and they’re having to help support the family,” Hamilton said. “Their employability is so much higher with that diploma than if they had to quit without that diploma.”

One clear data point: Graduation rates have been rising since the policy took effect. Both the 2024-25 rate and 2025-26 graduation rate set new highs.

The scholarship program for early graduates that was established in the 2023 budget hasn’t launched yet; it’s supposed to begin in the 2027-28 academic year. Lawmakers seem to be betting that interest will grow. In the most recent budget, they appropriated $1 million.