The Cost of Remedial Education

More than a third of Michigan students leave high school without possessing basic academic skills including reading, writing, and arithmetic. This forces employers and post-secondary schools to take up the slack. This study conservatively estimates that Michigan businesses and institutions of higher education spend over $600 million annually to teach employees and students skills they should have learned in high school. The comparable national figure is $16.6 billion, but the human costs of K-12 educational failure are incalculable, according to experts' essays included in the study's appendices.

Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Strategy 1: Direct Expenditures for Remedial Education by Michigan Institutions of Higher Education and Employers
  • The Cost to Community Colleges
  • The Cost to Four-Year Institutions of Higher Education
  • The Cost to Michigan Employers
  • A Conservative Estimate of Total Direct Expenditures Made by Michigan Colleges, Universities, and Employers
• Strategy 2: Re-Calculating the Cost to Employers
• Strategy 3: The Cost of Producing a "Successful" High School Graduate
• Strategy 4: Using NAEP Scores to Estimate the Number of Students Lacking Basic Skills
• Strategy 5: Including a "Return on Investment"
• The Best Estimate of the Economic Cost of Remediation
• Why Do So Many Students Require Remedial Education?
• What Is to Be Done?
• Appendix I: Educational Failure and the Need for Remediation: The Human Cost
• Appendix II: The Problem Is Clear, But Solutions May Vary
• Appendix III: Additional Costs, Causes, and Policy implications of Remedial Education
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• About the Commentators
• Endnotes