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Hutchinson planning bills concerning college remediation Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A Northwest Arkansas lawmaker said Wednesday she is having a bill drafted for the 2009 legislative session that would partially reimburse college freshmen at state universities who pass remediation courses. The measure also would require two-year colleges to pay the entire cost of a student's remediation class if they pass the course. "My approach to remediation is to pay remediation tuition for those first-time entering college freshmen," said Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista. College freshmen at state universities would be reimbursed $100 for each credit hour of remediation courses they pass, which would mean scoring above 19 on the ACT. Incoming freshmen from private schools, home schools or from out of state would not receive any reimbursement for their remediation courses, she said. The lawmaker said her proposal would allow the state to know exactly how much money is being paid for successful remediation. A higher education task force reported in August that Arkansas' colleges and universities currently spend about $54 million annually just on remediation classes. However, the report said it could not determine how much money was spent on successfully remediating a student. Hutchinson also said her proposal would probably attract more need-based students to college. "I would think it would increase the number of students going to (college) because they know they will get paid back," Hutchinson said, adding the proposal also would prevent colleges and universities from profiting on remediation courses. Another proposed bill Hutchinson said she is having drafted would prohibit four-year universities with more than 10 percent of their students taking remedial courses from counting those students for funding purposes. The schools would be able to count the credit hours of remedial students, with 12 credits equaling one full-time student. "Those with less than 10 percent remediation students are basically a full-time credit university," she said. The 10 percent minimum would rise to 30 percent during the 2009-10 school year, 40 percent by the 2011-12 year and 50 percent by the 2013-14 school year. The phase in is designed to give universities some time to improve their remediation classes, she said. "We just can't give these students to universities if they just don't have the programs to help," Hutchinson said, noting that Arizona and Massachusetts have banned the teaching of remedial courses at their four-year state institutions. "I do think that is going too far," she said. "I want people to know this is a much gentler way of handling it. We are not ready to go that route, but we need some quality controls." Hutchinson, who has been talking about the high remediation rates at state colleges and universities, said her goal is to reduce the cost of remediating college freshmen. She praised the higher education task force for its work and said she has discussed her proposals with Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, the group's chairman. Roebuck did not return telephone calls seeking comment Wednesday. On Tuesday, Roebuck presented the task force's $95 million plan for reducing the number of Arkansas high school students needing remediation when they enter college to the Arkansas Higher Education Presidents Council. About $36 million of the money would go toward increase scholarships funding, especially those based on need, as part of the group's goal of raising the percentage of college graduates in the state to the regional average by 2015. "We did not get here overnight. We've been discussing the (remediation) problem for 22 years," Roebuck told the council. "What we're doing now is not working." |
