More response to last week's St. Petersburg Times story about the financial costs of Advanced Placement, this time in an op-ed from Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia.

Here's a snippet: In Hillsborough County, our AP pass rate is not what it should be and not what it will be, as evidenced by last year's results where both our participation and our pass rate increased. We will continue our aggressive program of teacher training and student preparation, which are two time-tested strategies for getting results in the classroom. We believe we are succeeding beyond expectations in the first step in this process, which is to change a culture and open doors to promising young students.

And here's the kicker: We are aware of the costs of encouraging our students to stretch themselves academically — and we're aware of the costs of not doing so.