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An Act To Reduce the Burden Placed on Students as a Result of Requirements To Take Remedial Courses
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §10012, sub-§1, ¶B, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 615, §1, is amended to read:
 
B. The name of each secondary school in the State from which a traditional student enrolled in a remedial course received a high school diploma and, the number of those students from each of those schools and the costs to those students resulting from taking the remedial courses; and
Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §10012, sub-§4, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 615, §1, is repealed.
Sec. 3.  20-A MRSA §15689, sub-§6-A  is enacted to read:
 
6-A.  Adjustment for costs of remedial courses.     The commissioner shall reduce the state share of the total allocation to a school administrative unit by an amount equal to the cost of remedial courses taken at the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Maine Maritime Academy, referred to in this subsection as "public institutions of higher education," by students who graduated from that school administrative unit, as identified pursuant to section 10012, subsection 1, paragraph B. The reduction must occur in a first school year that a student took a remedial course, beginning after the issuance of the report pursuant to section 10012. The commissioner shall forward the amount of state share by which the total allocation to a school administrative unit is reduced to the treasurer of the appropriate public institution of higher education. Each public institution of higher education that receives funds under this subsection shall use the funds to reduce or eliminate the cost to students of taking remedial courses and shall describe how it used the funds to achieve that reduction or elimination in the report submitted under section 10012.
 
SUMMARY
Under current law, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Maine Maritime Academy are required to report on the number of remedial courses taken by students from each school administrative unit in the subjects of English language arts and mathematics. This bill requires those higher education institutions to report the costs to the students of those remedial courses, by school administrative unit, and requires the Commissioner of Education to reduce state subsidy to the school administrative units and to pay those funds to the higher education institutions. Those higher education institutions are required to use the funds to reduce or eliminate the costs of remedial courses to their students and to report to the Commissioner of Education and the Legislature how those funds were used to achieve the reduction or elimination of costs.