An Act To Reduce the Burden Placed on Students as a Result of Requirements To Take Remedial Courses
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 1812
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: COTTA
Amends: 20-A MRSA §10012, 20-A MRSA §15689

Legislative Document 
No. 1812 
H.P. 1301 
House of Representatives, March 11, 2014 
An Act To Reduce the Burden Placed on Students as a Result of 
Requirements To Take Remedial Courses 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative COTTA of China.  (GOVERNOR'S BILL) 
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repealed.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.