Hidden Costs of Community Colleges Web Tool

Nearly $4 billion was spent by federal, state, and local governments over five years on full-time community college students who dropped out after their first year without completing their certificate or degree programs, according to the new report, “The Hidden Costs of Community Colleges”, from AIR and College Measures.

Using U.S. Department of Education data, we have analyzed full-time students who didn’t return for a second year, while adjusting figures to account for students who transferred to four-year institutions. The cost of dropouts would be higher if part-time students and other government funding, such as direct federal support and capital expenditures, were included in the analysis.

With states and localities spending far more than the federal government on community colleges, and nearly every state facing serious budget shortfalls, the cost of community college dropouts to state taxpayers is especially troubling.

Below, you can use our interactive web tool to see how much has been spent in taxpayer dollars to educate these non-returning community college students, both at the state and institution level. In addition to the community colleges reviewed in the report, private for-profit and private not-for-profit institutions are shown below. To access the full report, please click here.

Texas

Estimated First-Year Attrition
16%	Rank: 23
Statewide Cost of Attrition
$79,032,047	Rank: 2

-- select another state -- Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

< Return to Map

Two-Year Institution

Estimated First-Year Attrition

State Appropriations Lost

Student Grants Lost

Cost of First Year Attrition

Tarrant County College District	17%	$6,386,403	$984,093	$7,370,496
Lone Star College System	13%	$3,367,532	$438,331	$3,805,863
Houston Community College System	15%	$3,342,227	$772,136	$4,114,363
San Jacinto Community College	14%	$3,055,578	$587,927	$3,643,505
Collin County Community College District	14%	$2,926,182	$266,413	$3,192,595
Austin Community College District	17%	$2,165,345	$274,966	$2,440,311
Texas State Technical College Waco	19%	$1,832,916	$501,770	$2,334,687
South Texas College	14%	$1,818,782	$1,005,886	$2,824,667
Tyler Junior College	20%	$1,802,527	$817,719	$2,620,245
San Antonio College	17%	$1,618,189	$891,362	$2,509,551
El Paso Community College	12%	$1,610,853	$1,071,965	$2,682,819
South Plains College	21%	$1,591,753	$645,929	$2,237,682
Del Mar College	18%	$1,547,665	$334,674	$1,882,339
Blinn College	19%	$1,215,667	$766,168	$1,981,835
St Philips College	20%	$1,151,803	$528,416	$1,680,218
College of the Mainland	16%	$1,125,882	$81,091	$1,206,974
Weatherford College	18%	$1,042,991	$166,496	$1,209,487
Kilgore College	19%	$885,652	$338,083	$1,223,735
Paris Junior College	28%	$818,915	$322,660	$1,141,575
Richland College	13%	$783,173	$174,636	$957,809
Grayson County College	16%	$737,037	$56,510	$793,547
Eastfield College	16%	$724,734	$175,941	$900,675
Palo Alto College	17%	$720,841	$432,880	$1,153,721
El Centro College	17%	$716,960	$175,232	$892,192
Amarillo College	19%	$711,852	$195,055	$906,906
Navarro College	17%	$701,281	$506,094	$1,207,375
Lee College	13%	$653,076	$64,483	$717,559
Cedar Valley College	20%	$652,786	$170,165	$822,951
Wharton County Junior College	15%	$607,837	$203,256	$811,093
Lamar Institute of Technology	20%	$580,773	$138,041	$718,813
Texas State Technical College-West Texas	21%	$566,216	$98,506	$664,723
Panola College	23%	$564,008	$116,031	$680,039
Angelina College	20%	$549,926	$327,954	$877,880
North Lake College	16%	$535,738	$101,417	$637,155
Alvin Community College	12%	$524,170	$60,695	$584,865
Victoria College	16%	$523,345	$108,543	$631,888
Southwest Texas Junior College	24%	$523,205	$456,168	$979,373
Texas State Technical College Harlingen	19%	$517,111	$285,231	$802,342
McLennan Community College	8%	$516,477	$234,131	$750,608
Brookhaven College	16%	$509,715	$76,266	$585,981
Galveston College	21%	$508,534	$89,344	$597,879
Lamar State College-Port Arthur	19%	$500,817	$147,588	$648,405
Howard College	20%	$495,428	$99,578	$595,006
Coastal Bend College	21%	$449,174	$293,167	$742,341
Temple College	20%	$447,789	$219,457	$667,246
Mountain View College	14%	$442,220	$126,958	$569,178
Lamar State College-Orange	21%	$431,145	$147,826	$578,971
Hill College	20%	$430,036	$150,682	$580,718
Central Texas College	19%	$424,203	$226,155	$650,358
Northeast Texas Community College	17%	$403,238	$146,983	$550,220
Cisco College	19%	$374,650	$241,299	$615,949
Ranger College	30%	$354,585	$100,100	$454,685
Clarendon College	23%	$338,333	$144,419	$482,752
Western Texas College	20%	$319,145	$34,211	$353,356
Texarkana College	11%	$263,327	$65,422	$328,749
Northwest Vista College	11%	$248,718	$132,562	$381,280
Odessa College	9%	$246,843	$41,224	$288,067
Trinity Valley Community College	8%	$239,560	$85,476	$325,036
North Central Texas College	21%	$211,473	$146,644	$358,116
Laredo Community College	3%	$210,373	$117,172	$327,546
Frank Phillips College	16%	$162,348	$61,775	$224,123
Texas State Technical College-Marshall	13%	$154,781	$48,220	$203,001
Vernon College	7%	$83,303	$36,041	$119,344
Brazosport College	7%	$3,283	$623	$3,906
Everest College-Dallas	28%	$0	$246,162	$246,162
K D Studio	25%	$0	$14,542	$14,542
Westwood College-Ft Worth	0%	$0	$0	$0
Westwood College-Dallas	0%	$0	$0	$0
Dallas Institute of Funeral Service	2%	$0	$1,466	$1,466
Court Reporting Institute-Wheeler Institute of Texas	17%	$0	$38,307	$38,307
Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service	13%	$0	$10,218	$10,218
Southwest Institute of Technology	28%	$0	$0	$0
ITT Technical Institute-Richardson	24%	$0	$55,553	$55,553
Texas Culinary Academy	11%	$0	$0	$0
Western Technical College	8%	$0	$0	$0
Texas Southmost College	0%	$0	$0	$0
Remington College-Dallas Campus	13%	$0	$0	$0
Everest College-Arlington	20%	$0	$295,930	$295,930
ATI Career Training Center	22%	$0	$0	$0
Westwood College-Houston South	0%	$0	$0	$0
Everest College-Fort Worth	20%	$0	$0	$0
Computer Career Center	13%	$0	$83,920	$83,920
Center for Advanced Legal Studies	18%	$0	$0	$0
The Academy of Health Care Professions	8%	$0	$0	$0
Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf	8%	$0	$15,950	$15,950
Midland College	0%	$0	$0	$0
Wade College	9%	$0	$12,451	$12,451
Southeastern Career Institute	21%	$0	$0	$0
Remington College-Houston Campus	17%	$0	$0	$0
Jacksonville College-Main Campus	17%	$0	$61,148	$61,148
Virginia College-Austin	7%	$0	$37,523	$37,523
ITT Technical Institute-Arlington	23%	$0	$48,785	$48,785
Lon Morris College	12%	$0	$74,229	$74,229
Remington College-North Houston Campus	20%	$0	$0	$0
Remington College-Fort Worth Campus	18%	$0	$0	$0
ITT Technical Institute-San Antonio	29%	$0	$77,490	$77,490
Hallmark College of Technology/Hallmark College of Aeronautics	0%	$0	$0	$0
ITT Technical Institute-Webster	20%	$0	$18,632	$18,632
ITT Technical Institute-Houston North	19%	$0	$46,949	$46,949
ITT Technical Institute-Austin	23%	$0	$47,143	$47,143
Western Technical College	14%	$0	$0	$0
ITT Technical Institute-Houston West	12%	$0	$18,979	$18,979