College Board is an organization that helps high school students enroll in college-level courses and earn credits toward their degrees, allowing them to avoid retaking and repaying for those courses once they attend college. Many students choose to take these classes to gain an early advantage in their academic careers — but often at a significant financial cost.
As testing season approaches, students are required to pay fees to register for exams, with additional charges for cancellations or late registrations.
Joshua Zenon, a senior at Hayward High School who has been enrolled in Advanced Placement courses since his sophomore year, estimates he has spent more than $700 on AP exams throughout his high school career. He attributes the high cost to his ineligibility for free or reduced-price testing.
“College Board gives a disadvantage to low socioeconomic students,” Zenon said.
Zenon believes that community action is necessary to develop initiatives that better support students who lack access to affordable testing options.
“College Board targets disadvantaged schools,” he said.
Zenon argued that students from lower-income schools already face systemic barriers to quality education, and that the College Board’s structure further reinforces these inequalities.
“They want to keep lower-income students dumb and upper-class students smart,” he said.
He added that while many students from low-income families struggle to afford even “cheap” AP exams, they will likely face even greater financial challenges once they pursue higher education, compounding their academic and economic disadvantages. Other students have said that AP tests are very expensive and think that it is not a fair price. So the question is, Should college board become more accessible?
Ms.Parsons the AP coordinator, provides help to be able to pay for AP exams if you are interested in getting help to finance your education, listen to announcements, or contact parsons.
Hayline 