From guaranteed, paid college admission to revitalized career training, school districts across Colorado are preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s careers.
Here’s a look at the various postsecondary options in El Paso County:
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Dating back to 2020, Harrison D-2 has offered the opportunity to cover all tuition costs and fees for high school graduates attending Pikes Peak State College (PPSC) through its D-2 Promise Scholarship Program. Since then, Colorado Springs D-11 developed its own Promise program for its high schools in 2024.
That same year, PPSC launched the First Nations Promise Program, a last-dollar grant that will cover any and all expenses for members of all 574 federally recognized American Indian tribes who live in El Paso, Teller or Elbert counties.
Further expanding access to local students, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, (UCCS) announced this fall that it will begin accepting all Colorado graduates with a grade-point average of 2.75 or higher.
For those with broader aspirations, the annual Daniels Fund Scholarship awards Colorado students with full-ride scholarships up to $100,000 for their choice of school outside the region. This year, 15 Colorado Springs students were among the 230 high school seniors across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming to receive the competitive scholarship.
Jasmine Rainey, director of access and success for the education support nonprofit Peak Education in Colorado Springs, said that these recent developments are responses to revised state graduation guidelines, where students must demonstrate career and academic readiness, the ever-increasing costs of higher education and the local industry needs in the region.
“I think people are starting to recognize that we need to get our students more prepared for work-based learning and provide those opportunities,” she said.
In its 2025-28 strategic plan, the Colorado Department of Education set a goal for 100 percent of 2029 high school graduates to have a quality work-based learning experience, college credits or an industry-recognized credential.
Students looking to get an early start to their next phase of education can also take advantage of concurrent enrollment options at their high school. Unlike dual enrollment, where high schoolers are enrolled in college courses online or off-campus, concurrent enrollment allows them to earn these credits at the main campus from college professors.
PPSC currently partners with nearly all high schools in El Paso and Teller counties to offer concurrent enrollment classes. This fall, UCCS announced that it will now offer its concurrent enrollment classes to students at the community college tuition rate of $5,250, or $175 per credit hour, instead of its resident rate of $12,644.
Recent data from the Colorado Community College System reported that more than 40,000 high school students enrolled in community college courses this fall, nearly 3,400 more than the previous year.
“We’re still seeing students want to go to college, but they’re trying to find the most affordable option out there,” Rainey said.
Further options for students in Colorado Springs include D-49’s Pikes Peak Early College, D-11’s Odyssey Early College & Career Options and the state-chartered Colorado Early College - Colorado Springs and Colorado Early College - Online. Early colleges are defined in Colorado law as a secondary school that requires students to earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, another postsecondary credential or at least sixty credits toward the completion of a credential.
WORKFORCE READINESS
While access to college is on the rise, greater investments are also being made across school districts for students looking to start their careers upon graduation.
Kickstarted last year, the coalition Innovate Pikes Peak brings together urban and rural school districts in the Pikes Peak Region to share resources and programming to serve a greater number of students interested in workforce training in in-demand industries.
On individual levels, Widefield D-3 students can currently utilize its manufacturing education center, the MILL, while Lewis-Palmer D-38 is currently filling out the programming for its Career and Innovation campus that opened this fall. Over in D-49, the district has expanded its career and technical education (CTE) offerings at its Patriot Applied Learning Campus and Falcon High School for the culinary arts, construction and automotive fields.
This fall, the Colorado Springs School of Technology opened as an innovation zone in D-11 to bridge high schoolers’ secondary education with their interest in burgeoning local industries like aerospace and cybersecurity via industry certifications, internships and mentorships with Colorado Springs’ local industry professionals.
© 2026 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
