No One Knows How Much College Remedial Education Costs

  Below is a new Education Commision of the States compilation of  college remediation costs. But these numbers only reflect students who do take developmental classes, not all that need it. Many students do not take these classes, or drop out before completing the sequence. I estimate  that community college remediation is 65% of recent high school graduates, and 30% at 4 years colleges. This high incidence is not reflected in the state cost figures.

This new paper from ECS’ Getting Past Go project summarizes state reports on the cost of college remedial education. Some of the reports offer general expenditures, while others provide more a detailed examination of the costs of delivering remedial education. (Mary Fulton, July, 2010)
http://www.gettingpastgo.org/docs/CostofRemedialEducation-StateReports.pdf