Even as 90 more students enrolled, Metro Early College High School couldn't hire additional teachers. And suddenly, it had no money to pay tuition for students to take classes at Ohio State University.

The state money for Metro and the nine other Ohio high schools that give college access to low-income and first-generation collegegoers has dried up, and some of those schools say the cuts could kill them.

"We're scrambling to make sure we can exist," said Metro Principal Marcy Raymond. Metro received $800,000 last year from the state.

The state set aside roughly $7 million for each of the past two years for the specialty schools to pay tuition for students to take courses at partner colleges. Money for early-college programs was one of many education-related items cut in the two-year state budget.

The state still provides money for students in high schools to participate in other dual-enrollment programs, where they take college courses to earn both high-school and college credit.

Students who attend early-college high schools can graduate with a high-school diploma and up to two years of college credit. Three schools are in Columbus: Columbus Africentric, Metro and the Charles School, although Charles did not receive the type of state funding that has been cut.

There are about 200 early-college schools nationwide, which set themselves apart from traditional dual-enrollment programs by offering students additional guidance and support. Leaders at the Dayton Early College Academy, the state's oldest program, started in 2003, have said that losing roughly $700,000 could force it to close.

Africentric, which is part of the Columbus school district, won't be closing, but it won't look much like an early-college school anymore without the $978,000 it received from the state, said interim Chief Academic Officer Elaine Bell. The district is looking for a way to replace the money, but it seems unlikely that it will find one, she said.

The cuts mean fewer Africentric students will be able to take college courses.

Study-skills courses won't be available to the high-school students anymore, and freshmen and sophomores won't be allowed to take any college courses. The summer program that introduced the Africentric students to college was eliminated. Africentric upperclassmen will have access to a standard dual-enrollment program, but the supports that made the early-college program special are gone.

Few states set aside money for early-college schools, said Michael Webb of Jobs for the Future, a group that oversees early-college schools nationwide on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Georgia did, but it cut the state contribution this year in response to the bad economy.

"With that exception, there's no other state that has suffered in that same way" as Ohio, Webb said.

Because early-college schools are small, funding cuts affect them more, he said.

Metro, a countywide program that focuses on science and math, has about 350 students. Its partners, Battelle and Ohio State, have provided emergency funding so students can take courses this year.

The fact that Metro isn't technically a school means it doesn't have access to other types of dual-enrollment money, such as through the Seniors to Sophomores program.

jsmithrichards @dispatch.com