In the rush to get high school graduates paying tuition, America’s education system is geared toward herding them into colleges.

Remedial courses were an option for those who arrived unprepared for college level work.  Paul Fain of Inside Higher Ed has the details on a new law that lets students skip these remedial classes without testing.

Community college students in Florida will soon be able to decide to skip remediation and enroll directly in credit-bearing courses, even if college advisers or placement tests say they have remedial needs. And recent high school graduates in the state won’t even need to take placement tests, because they will be deemed college-ready by holding a high school diploma.

The shifts in Florida’s remedial education policies are part of a broad bill the state’s Legislature passed and Gov. Rick Scott signed into law last month. The legislation will have major ramifications for students at Florida’s 28 two-year colleges, and perhaps beyond.

“It may foreshadow many of the things that are about to happen around the country,” said Stan Jones, president of Complete College America, an advocacy group that supported the Florida bill.

Among other provisions, the bill, SB 1720, featured a loosening of a proposed cap on general education credit hours for the state’s public institutions, back to 36 credits from a proposed 30 credits. That aspect was popular with college leaders. The remedial policies, however, have generated some controversy.

Under the legislation, colleges by 2014 will no longer be able to require recent high school graduates to take the state’s standard placement test or to enroll in noncredit remedial courses. Active-duty members of the U.S. military will also be exempt.

That change builds on previous legislation and essentially pushes the responsibility for remediation back to the public K-12 system in the state. A 2011 Florida law made college placement testing mandatory for most 11th graders. High school students who don’t make the cut are required to take courses during their senior year that are designed to address remedial needs.

When they arrive at Florida community colleges, recent high school graduates will still be able to take placement tests or enroll in noncredit remedial courses. They just won’t have to.

This approach contradicts popular ideas held by community college leaders around the country. They include: Students don’t do optional and often make the wrong choices about courses; many high school graduates are not ready for college-level work; and students who start credit-bearing courses without adequate preparation face long odds of graduating.

The legislation differentiates between these traditional-aged students and their adult peers, which Jones said is an important innovation in the remedial reform movement.

…The final call on remediation, however, will be made by students themselves.