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

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