Free GEDs didn't increase local number of recipients

A General Equivalency Degree for free didn’t bring out as many people as hoped in Hardin County.

The period in which the fee for the GED test was waived ends Thursday and while the local GED testing center has been busy these past few weeks, the program didn’t seem to make an overall difference in GED recipients.

Luanne Barnes, coordinator for the GED testing center at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, said June has been a busy month for testing.

“We’ve been having full houses this past month,” Barnes said.

But when she looked at numbers from last year, they don’t show any increase in GED recipients, which surprised her, she said.

It could be a case of potential test-takers waiting too late to sign up during the free period. Barnes said many people have called in the past two weeks to register and found there were no spaces available before the end of June.

Kentucky Adult Education waived the usual $55 fee for the test beginning in mid-March. The fee will increase to $60 beginning in July.

There is no data available for the state as a whole yet, said Janet Hoover, senior associate for policy development for Kentucky Adult Education. But there has been an increased demand for testing sessions, especially at the end of this month, Hoover said. There are some locations that have added sessions in order to meet the demand.

Barnes said others in the local office had heard potential test-takers mention the fee waiver when registering for the test, and she thinks it likely brought out some who had been putting the test off.

Kelly Cantrall can be reached at (270) 505-1747.