The Manhattan Area Technical College courses are a new set of college prep classes currently being offered at Manhattan High. MATC is a technical college located on Dickenson Ave across from CiCo Park.

The technical college offers classes from College Algebra with AP statistics teacher Ted Dawdy to Business management and intro to Business teacher Kathy Ricketts here at the high school. These courses are opening a door for students to explore challenging college prep courses in a comfortable high school setting.The switch from KSU to MATC allows the high school to offer more classes such as a few of the newer automotive classes. These courses are open to all students despite their financial situations.

“The partnership with MATC is much more beneficial for students,” Dawdy said in reference to MATC’s tuition price, which is lower than K-State’s. The pricing for the courses have now dropped by about $600.

“It’s a third of the price, so they can get a huge jump start on it,” college career counselor Katie Ball said.The Senate Bill 155 put in place mid-year 2012 is what allows tuition for these courses to be so affordable for students. Although some of the classes may still be a bit pricey for some students there are classes that have no cost at all. Cheap to no cost classes are making it available to all families to encourage their student(s) to try before going to a higher education campus.

“I believe that it makes it much more affordable for our families,” Bell said.